#And by season 4 it’s pretty much on full display. | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

marionthegeek · 1 year ago

Text

Stede is in the Gravy Basket, Izzy is Alive

The season 2 finale of Our Flag Means Death is odd. It hits weird. I think I know why. And this is going to sound bananas, but give me a chance to explain. Maybe you’ll agree.

It has a huge tonal shift. It seems to speedrun Stede and Ed’s romance. It feels like we’ve missed out on something from the end of episode 7. The fight scenes and pirate plans are nonsensical, even for OFMD. And most egregiously, a prominent character is killed off in a way that feels disingenuous to his story arc, just for starters.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. We need to go back to the beginning of season 2. The season opens with Stede looking more piratey than ever. Beard, sash, earring… oh he’s his own fantasy of a real proper pirate. He’s clashing swords with Izzy Hands and demanding to know where Ed is. He’s dreaming. In the dream he kills Izzy. He and Ed run into each other’s arms while screaming each other’s names. They crash into the surf. Ed says “I knew you’d find me, Babe. I knew you’d find me, Love.” Stede keeps asking if they’re good. Ed dodges the question. Then Ed asked about the smell. Stede wakes up in a crowded room with farting and shushing roommates.

At first I thought the finale was supposed to be just a “satisfying” mirror to Stede’s dream. Stede and Ed call each other’s names and run into each other’s arms in a display that resembles a more grown up version of Stede’s dream fantasy. There’s some wild sword fighting not unlike Stede’s dream duel with Izzy. And Izzy dies.

It does mirror, but I didn’t find it satisfying. All of the characters except Stede feel flattened. Stede gets to make the heroic plan (that we never even hear) while there’s at least five pirates with better skill sets for it in the room. Ed, as Blackbeard, was described last season as “History’s greatest tactician”; Zheng Yi Sao conquered China; Jackie just took out a room full of British soldiers. Izzy and Auntie are right there. You could make arguments that Jim or Frenchie, or pretty much anyone could make a better plan. Then Stede says “It’s only suicide if we die,” which is horrible considering the plan gets Izzy killed.

Stede’s really the only person in that room who thinks Stede should be making the plans. So I got to thinking, what if it's not just mirroring the dream? What if it is a dream? Last shot of episode 7 is an incoming cannonball. Maybe he’s unconscious.

Huge shout out to @Arty_Sunflowers on twitter (I’m not calling it X, fuck Musk) for pointing out that that isn’t the only episode that ends with a cannonball. Episode 2 ends with Jim swinging a cannonball down at Ed’s head. Stede’s not just dreaming, he’s in the Gravy Basket!!!! (Stede even screams “Oh my God!” at the end of episode 7 in the same tone he screams “Oh my God, I don’t want to die.” in s1e9.

Stede’s hopes, dreams, and insecurities shape everything in the finale. And it helps explain the absurdities in the episode when you remember that Stede is living out pulp adventure and romance novels in his head. (He even looks like someone on the cover of one in his episode 1 dream.) But Stede can’t be dead, you say. He’s literally the main character. Well, Ed was dead for a whole episode. Let’s take a closer look.

I could and probably will do another essay on Lucius as a POV character and Ed’s mental health and how the threads they seemed to have dropped aren’t as dropped as they appear. But all of that hinges on me proving the Stede is in the Gravy Basket theory. So for this essay I’m focusing on that.

So for starters we’ve got the cannonball scenes. They’re eerily similar even if the method of cannonball propulsion is different. We don’t know Ed is dead and in the Gravy Basket for about half of episode 3. Neither does he. It makes logical sense you can be there without realizing it for a while. Buttons even said Ed didn’t know whether he was in the Gravy Basket or not in episode 4. It definitely messes with your reality.

One of Ed’s issues is self hate. He manifests Hornigold as his companion. Stede is desperate to be a good pirate and have people be proud of him. And he lives in his fantasies a lot. So his dream shapes his experience. There’s a whole bit about Zheng needing “soft” and Auntie saying she’s proud of her. That isn’t their issue. It’s discordant with the show previously. But it is Stede’s issue. He’s manifesting.

When we first see Stede and Zheng in episode 8, they’re in a familiar spot for Stede, the bridge from episode 1. But why are they alone? When we last see Stede and Zheng in episode 7, several characters are within 5 to 10 feet of them. Did none of them decide to escape with Stede? Izzy, Lucius, and Jim are closest. But we know Pete was there begging Stede to stay down during his fight with Zheng. Archie was definitely in the bar. That's why Jim entered the fight. So why is it only Stede and Zheng at the bridge? Because, going back to rescue others fits into Stede's hero fantasies.

Zheng and Stede also argue about who pulled who to safety and how they got there. Stede waxes poetic about being a failure his whole life, but things always seem to work out for him. He’s such a main character mediocre white guy in this scene. He saves Zheng from two random soldiers, then she has to save him from them. Then they fight a bunch more soldiers on the beach until Blackbeard manifests in full leather from the ocean. It looks cool. But it's absurd, even for OFMD.

Speaking of Ed, he begins the episode waxing poetic about nature and calling fishermen simple. Those things are more Stede than Ed. Pop pop tells Ed, “You have no skills” which is something Izzy said to Stede in episode 5. He also tells Ed, “If you were ever good at something, go do that, you bum.” If Stede’s insecurities could be distilled into one sentence, it would probably be that. (He also talks about being like a wave. I’m not 100% sure it's a The Good Place joke, but it would be thematically appropriate.)

Pop pop also tells Ed he “ruined dinner.” Back in season 1, in Stede’s flashbacks to life with Mary and the kids, Stede thinks he’s ruined dinner. But remember, we also see another version of the scene where Stede is laughing with Mary and the kids. Stede isn’t exactly a reliable narrator. Even in his own head.

Despite it being beyond unlikely, Ed finds soldiers reading one of Stede’s letters. I know physics in this show is sketchy, but this seems like a good time to point out no one found the red silk. Stede wants Ed to read a letter and for it to fix everything between them. The letter, plus Stede being in danger, make Ed swim out, find his leathers, and emerge from the sea with them on, while the music is the Swede’s solo from Stede’s fuckery in s1e6. Stede wants to be rescued by his handsome pirate in leather, again, just like a pulp adventure romance novel. Little chance of Ed swimming out and finding his kit. Even less of him getting leather pants on under the water.

Back to the beach… for some reason two squads of soldiers are wandering around out on an empty beach. A visually incredible fight scene occurs. It honestly reminds me of Pete’s story in s1e2, including flips. Ed and Stede yell each other’s names exactly as in the dream. Like I’m pretty sure they used the same audio track. The same song (I Love My Baby, Nina Simone) starts playing. Ed says “I love you.” Stede says “I know.” (We’ll come back to the Han Solo joke in a minute.) They have a bit more absurd fighting then Ed, Stede, and Zheng sit on the beach complimenting each other. And Ed calls Stede “babe”. He’s never done that outside of Stede’s dream and this moment. He’s called him mate a couple of times. Babe is exclusively in Stede’s head.

Back in the Republic of Pirates, the crew are locked in a cell that is actually the “vista suite” at Spanish Jackie’s. Izzy gets a heroic entrance. It’s as cool as Stede thinks Izzy is. And he gives a speech that sounds like what he probably told Stede to get him to relinquish the suit in episode 5. Piracy is about belonging to something. You can’t ignore the wishes of the crew. Izzy also knows details about Captain Kidd and Pinocchio. Not impossible, but not exactly Izzy’s wheelhouse. It is Stede’s though. He’s obsessed with pirate tales and he read Pinocchio to the crew.

Stede, Ed, and Zheng show up just as Jackie has poisoned a bunch of soldiers. Stede makes a plan, despite everyone else being more qualified. Everyone disguises themselves as soldiers. Now we’ve seen the crew of the Revenge wear disguises. They never do the weird free styling they do here. Only Stede actually looks like a British officer. Zheng at least wears the disguise properly. Suddenly Ed has a multi gun bandolier like Blackbeard in the books. Pete ripped the arms off. Izzy is still wearing his vest. Doesn’t make sense if we’re going for stealth. Neither does not checking hostage Ricky for weapons or putting Izzy and his wooden leg at the front of the group.

If I'm right, Stede wouldn't know Ricky was behind the explosions. However, Ricky is basically evil Stede. He's Stede's perfect foil. All of this is reflecting Stede's psyche. So, of course, it's Ricky.

Izzy gets shot and says quite a lot of nonsense in his death scene. “They love you, Ed.” Um, 3 of them were going to leave like five minutes ago. Ed has made some progress with the crew, but we’re not at “they love you Ed”. The only person who thinks the crew loves Ed is Stede. Stede who weeps for Izzy while most of the crew aren’t showing much emotion. Stede can barely deal with his own big feelings. His fantasy doesn’t give the crew room to have them. Also, given the rest of the season, having Jim just let Ed be the person cradling Izzy doesn’t fit. The crew is also pretty stony at Izzy’s funeral.

I feel like it should be noted the last shot of Izzy in episode 7, he’s got one are around Jim and a hand on Lucius’s shoulder. He sat in Wee John’s lap in episode 6. Reactions to his death don’t make sense.

Also, Izzy’s terrible grave marker is very … Stede. He’d think it was a brilliant idea.

I didn't understand at first why Izzy had to die, even in Stede's dream world. Stede clearly likes him a lot better now. Why kill him? Well, it's because we're supposed to think Buttons is there to go to the Gravy Basket for Izzy. When actually he's already arrived in the Gravy Basket and he's there for Stede. Also, mentors die in pulp adventure novels. Stede sees Izzy as a mentor.

They go aboard the Revenge for Lucius and Pete’s wedding. It’s cute that the crew performs the ceremony, but I’d venture a guess that’s because Stede doesn’t know a captain should do it if it's legally binding. Stede does love the romance of it all. The sudden uptick in monogamy is also very Stede. He barely understands monogamous relationships. Polyamory is beyond him.

Then Stede and Ed, who earlier told Zheng they’d help hunt Ricky, go back to the island where Izzy is buried to start an inn in a run down shack. Stede knows Ed wants to do this because Ed told the (Taika’s) kids that they ran an inn. We hear Ed ask “Jesus, what is that smell?” Now, at first, I thought Izzy, because Ed “knows the smell of my rotting first mate”. But what was the last thing to happen in Stede’s dream? A fart joke.

Last scene is Buttons landing on Izzy’s grave. To retrieve Izzy from the Gravy Basket? No, Izzy’s not dead. He’s with Jim and Lucius, probably watching over Stede’s corpse. Buttons is there to retrieve Stede.

This theory fixes the plot holes and dropped threads problem. We’re coming back to them next season. Ed's amends making should be far from over. And we see several moments during the season where he acknowledged that. And yet here on the island they've set up a horror movie and called it a happy ending. Well, Stede is the type of boss who thinks things are fixed with a pizza (Calypso) party. In Stede's mind, this is a happy ending. But really Ed is still off finding himself, Stede is (temporarily) dead, and Izzy (who is not dead!) is probably guarding Stede's corpse.

They haven't resolved the domestic violence thread, but they haven't dropped it, either. Izzy is alive. Stede and Ed aren't together (yet). There's still time.

This also explains some of the freewheeling nonsense David Jenkins has been spouting in articles. Ed doesn’t see Izzy as a father figure and mentor, Stede does. Stede almost turned to mush when Izzy approved of him. And David is writing a three volume adventure novel. Han Solo (Stede) is in carbonate (the Gravy Basket). The perfect end to the second act. See, I told you we’d get back to the Han Solo joke.

I still have problems with the season. I really think they need a sensitivity reader. Even just implying a newly disabled character was fridged is certainly a choice. Especially given the amount of time devoted to how the character handled the disability. The DV scenes were brutal, as well as the suicide attempt, and the Human Puppet joke. I think they need someone trauma informed and disabled in the writer's room. (David Jenkins hit me up!)

Overall, I liked season 2. Especially once I realized Izzy wasn't dead. I'm looking forward to season 3, the conclusion of the Gentle Beard arc, and hopefully 6 seasons and a movie of Izzy (to be clear, he's not captain) and the kids sailing up and down the coast being gay and doing crimes, occasionally checking in with Stede and Ed.

Seriously, David, call me.

Historical Note: IRL Blackbeard died on November 22, 1718, killed in a naval battle off Ocracoke Island in North Carolina. IRL Stede Bonnet died December 10, 1718, hanged in Charles Town, South Carolina for piracy. IRL Israel “Izzy” Hands survives piracy, death date unknown. I know this show doesn’t actually care about historical accuracy, but this lends a little support for my Ed died, then Stede died, and Izzy isn’t dead theory.

#our flag means death #ofmd #izzy hands #stede bonnet #gravy basket #Izzy Hands lives #David Jenkins I just want to talk

692 notes · View notes

luvwestwood · 10 months ago

Text

"Build a Bear" - Nanami Kento

3,077 words.

note: just re-posting this as i'm no longer shadow-banned, enjoy kento slutting you out in the victoria secret changing rooms lol

content warnings: nsfw (18+), sex, breeding, dom! nanami, pet names (princess/slut, doll etc), changing room sex, hair pulling, you walk around the mall with his cum stuffed into you lol, quickies, standing sex, semi-public sex? kento sluts you out in the vs changing rooms lol

banner cred. @/yunonoai on twt/ig

Nanami was your boyfriend of almost one year, and you must say, things were going pretty well. He was a gentleman, who was able to prove 24/7 that chivalry isn't dead at all. Kento was all you could ever ask for, and usually you'd spend your days with him wondering how did you end up with a man like the Kento Nanami?

Kento loved to spoil you rotten. He was more of a giver than a receiver. Acknowledging the fact that he’s financially stable, earns way more than what he needs, of course— the rest will go to you, his beloved girlfriend. It was almost like.. he found pleasure in doing it. He always anticipated the big cheesy smile on your face when he comes home with bags full of everything. He's always eager to whip out his sleek black credit card at any given moment as if it was toy money.

Hair curler not working anymore? You’d be getting a new one the next day. Your car broke down? Look out into the driveway the next morning. He ripped your panties the night before? You’ll wake up to four bags full of bespoke lingerie, all specially made for you.

Today was Thursday, which meant either two things. One, it could just be a normal Tuesday. Two, it was Nanami’s payday. And so you know what that means…

“Anywhere else you'd like to go?" Kento followed behind you, all of your shopping bags from earlier in his grasp. Both hands full. Don't forget, he was a respectful guy. He'd never let you carry anything, even if you wanted to. "We have all the time in the world."

You let out a hum, thinking. "Hmm.." You continued, "Maybe Victoria's Secret? I heard theres a 4 for 15€ sale happening on the undies!" The two of you step onto the escalator, Nanami behind you. "And that will be it. I don't want to spend anymore."

"Doll, you already know what I'm gonna say to that." He lets out a labored sigh, looking up at you as you look down at him. You turn around and frowned.

"...I know, but.." You pause your words as Kento abruptly cuts you off. It was as if he was doing this so you speak no further about this matter which you bring up every now and then. Okay.. maybe every time Kento brings you on a shopping splurge.

"Hey- eyes forward, we're getting off the escalator." He quickly moves all shopping bags to one hand, using the free one to guide you off the escalator by gently pressing on your back. It was good timing, cause it allowed you to shut your mouth before you go on your daily rant about how he spends too much money on you, and that you would like to be independent for once.

"Okay, but.." You turn to him as soon as you enter the store; the sweet smell of the body mists and dark, sultry ambience of the place enticing you. "You never let me give you anything in return. I want to do something for you for once." You say this in a stern whisper, as it was more of a small but silly couple's quarrel, and you didn't want other customers to get the wrong idea between you and Nanami.

You hold eye contact with him as he returns the same, Kento remains silent before you see the evident glint in his eyes as an idea sparks in his thoughts.

"Alright then," He ushers you to a quieter part of the store, specifically where last season's lingerie was displayed. "You wanna do something for me?"

You aggressively nod in response. "Yes pleaseeee, anything." Tugging on his blue dress shirt, you quietly beg. Beg that he'd let you do something for him for once.

He looks around the store for a moment to see if anyone else was browsing close enough to where you two were standing. The coast is clear.

"Hmm.." The suspense was killing you. "How about, you and I head to the changing rooms.." Oh, I know where this is going. "I stuff you full of my cum, then we walk out like nothing happened."

You froze. Completely. You weren't mortified, just amazed at how he was able to come up with something like this. "Wh- Ken, are you craz-?!"

"Ah- bap bap bap- I'm not done." He shushes you immediately. "After all that, I buy you a set of lingerie that I get to choose, which you'll wear later tonight." You notice that he holds a tighter grip on the handles of the shopping bag - his sleeves were rolled up and you could see the veins straining on his forearm. Kento was most likely turned on at the thought of what he had just said.

Your own throat goes dry, causing you to swallow your own spit. With furrowed brows you approach him closer to whisper what you were supposed to say less than twenty seconds ago - "..Are you out of your mind?"

He just shrugs his shoulders. "You said you wanted to do something for me, so I gave you an idea for that exact something."

Skeptical, you frantically look side to side before you let out a blabber of words. "What is this, Build-A-Bear?!" And that's exactly what it was. Although he was a gentleman outdoors, and of course indoors; but he's a completely different story under the sheets, Kento never failed to amuse you.

He wanted to stuff you full of his cum in the changing rooms like the bears at Build-A-Bear that get violated by the metal rod that pumps out the fluff. Then, when he's happy about how full you are, he'll pull your panties back up before bringing you back out like nothing happened, choosing a new lingerie set for his eyes to feast on later tonight.

Nanami stayed silent as he watched you think. The two of you weren't talking, your feet grounded in the same position. But he knows your hard-thinking face when he sees it, and he can tell that you're considering the offer. Maybe you were tempted.

You cross your arms. "Fine. But tell me how they're gonna allow us to stay in those changing rooms for more than ten minutes. You know how they are... in a store like this."

Nanami, with his free hand, reached over to the rack beside you, that displayed cute baby-doll sets in various colors. You watched as he grabbed one in every color - he at least took five. In pink, black, red, blue and purple. "That'll give us enough time."

Your stomach fluttered at his remark, was he really going to blow your back in the changing rooms right now? Oh God, if we were to get caught I'm never showing my face in this mall ever again.

You squint at him before turning around, unable to catch the pleasurable grin he had ended your conversation with.

The two of you walked to the back of the store where the changing rooms were, with occasional glares behind you to Nanami. You were practically scolding him with his eyes. Luckily it was more secluded and closed off in the back, and the fact that it was only Thursday resulted in the mall being the complete opposite of busy. That meant no staff will continuously pester you to hurry up, as there are others waiting in the queue.

As you approached the changing rooms, a brunette girl came up to the both of you. You assumed she was a worker by the lanyard on her neck. "Hi, how many?"

You held up the hangers, smiling awkwardly. "..Six items." She weirdly ogled you due to the amount of items you had and don't forget, they were all the same item just in different colours.. As if it were her business anyways.

"Oh- I couldn't make up my mind.. I h-had to try them all." Your breath hitched as you told a lie, you heard Nanami snort behind your back as he listened to how ridiculous you sounded.

Fortunately the girl let it slide. "...Okay, follow me." She walked down the hall of changing rooms until she reaches the one at the very far end. Of course, you and Kento followed. You chewed onto the skin of your lip, gripping onto the mesh fabric of the baby-doll dresses as you walked.

The worker unlocks the door with the key on her lanyard, pulling it open and stepping aside. Only yourself enters first, and you turn around to the two of them. "You can just.. wait for me outside of the door babe." You cycle glances between the worker and Kento. The worker thinks nothing of it. Your boyfriend just nods, smiling as he stepped a bit further back from the door, leaning against the wall behind him.

The girl makes a comment before closing the door. "There's a special button on the wall, if you need any assistance with sizing. Just press it if you need anything."

You take a look at the button before smiling at her, and saying thanks. The door finally closes. You give yourself a minute, taking a look at yourself in the mirror, breathing in and out. You place the hangers on the rail, and your purse on the tiny stool in the corner.

The worker was long gone, it seems that she was occupied with stocking the body-mist shelves outside. Nanami was still waiting outside of the door, until the sound of a lock turning was heard followed by you opening it slightly. Your head poking out in the tiny gap you made.

"..C-come here." You whisper, before he moves himself away from the wall, entering the changing room with you in it.

Nanami wasted no time, immediately grabbing the door open wider with his free hand, locking it behind him. Dropping all the bags on the ground, his lips found yours first. The two of you gently move against the wall, his hands roaming all over your body - but cups your face in the end.

"Are you sure?" He had to double check. Kento wasn't the type of guy to force you into anything you didn't want to do, he always made sure you were comfortable doing it. That's another reason why you loved him so dearly.

Breathing heavily, you eagerly nodded in response. He peppers a trail of kisses from your lips down to your neck, causing you to let out a breathy moan of his name in response. "..K-Kento," You shiver as you felt him plant wet kisses just below your jaw, the obvious tent growing as you continuously call out his name. In return, you wrap your arms around his neck like a sloth, whimpering and moaning as he reaches your sweet spots.

He groans as he indulges himself in your scent, which he never fails to lose his mind about. You were just irresistible and each time he had you - Nanami just yearned for more. The way you'd be dripping wet even though he barely laid a finger on you, and how sensitive you were to his own touch. It felt like he had won the lottery by just being with you.

Considering the time you two had, Kento quickly went back to kissing you on the lips, this time with tongue. By the time he was finished, a string of spit connected your tongues as he pulled away. You look into his eyes before making a request. "..I need you in me."

"Turn around, stay against the wall." He says in short breaths as he tried to catch his own, clearly pent up by the intense make-out session the two of you just had. You obey, your cheek against the wall as he kept you in place.

You looked to your right to face the full length mirror, the cold air hitting the skin of your ass as he flipped your skirt up, followed by your panties being dragged down your legs. He kneels and places a small kiss on your dripping hole before standing back up into his original stance. He grabs a handful of your soft flesh, giving it a spank. The quiet gasps from your mouth only rousing him more.

He struggles with his belt, eager to get it unbuckled. Silently, you watch until he finally gets it, his hardened cock springing up onto his stomach as it finally was able to escape from his pants. Your heart palpitates like crazy at the sight of the arousal dripping from his pink tip, causing you to push back onto him when you weren't meant to - you needed him. Bad.

"..Be patient baby," he grins, after seeing how needy you've become.

You arch your back a bit more, putting your pussy on display to him. He did nothing but devour your body like a work of art with his own eyes. His warm hands snake onto your shoulder for support as he aligns the tip of his cock with your hole that was quite literally begging for him.

A sharp inhale comes from you as you felt his thick cock stretching you out. Kento heard this, and he quickly gave you a peck on the temple before gripping onto your flesh harder. As soon as he slid all the way in, he planted a few more kisses on your nape allowing you to adjust.

He gave you nothing but sweet, slow movements to make sure he didn't hurt you. His chin laid onto your shoulder as breathy moans slipped from his lips - this had only made your knees weaker.

Still pinned against the wall, you snaked your hand to the back of his head, pulling him closer. "G-go ha-arder." And so he did. Kento knew the difference between faster and harder, and he never mixed the two up.

You grab onto the wall for support as he ruts in to you harder, his cock covered with ring of creamy white near the shaft. The gel from his hair rather non-existent from the way you grabbed for it earlier.

"F-fuck," You moaned out, it had only made him go crazier each time you gasped his name or little curses under your breath. The noise of whimpering and squelches from each thrust echoing through the rather tiny changing room.

Your stimulation reaches peak as he fondled with your breasts each time he thrusted into you, his balls making a slapping noise along with them.

He gently tugged your hair into a pony, causing you to haul your face off the wall. "Look into the mirror doll," He spoke between soft grunts. "Watch how you take my big cock like the little slut you are." Your face was messed up, along with you hair at this point too. Each hair was no longer in place with its curl, and your lipstick had been rubbed off into different directions.

You felt his pace change not too drastically, but he continuously deeped onto your g-spot. Your knees weaken and he notices this, the knot in your stomach tightening as he felt your muscle clench non-stop around him.

"K-Kento.. I'm gonna..-" You gasp as he yanked the low cut collar of your top down, causing your boobs to slip out. He pulls you back onto his chest causing you to stand up straight, interlocking his forearms around your elbows. The two of you are now facing the mirror. Warmth of his chest hitting your back as you leaned against it.

You watch as your tits bounce with every deep thrust, Nanami whimpering quietly as he feels his balls tightening. "I-I need to cum..." You whispered, at this point your voice was no longer there. "Please..."

He leaned into your face as you rest the back of your head on his shouder, you were in a moment of bliss. "I know princess, cum all over my cock like a good girl."

And that did it for you. You moaned out loud, your intense orgasm washing over you, and Kento was quick enough to cover your mouth so no one from outside would hear the filthy things happening inside of a changing room as small as this.

Not long after, his warm ropes of cum filled you up constantly as he whimpered quietly, the two of you drained from the intense session.

You use your own two hands to grab onto the mirror decorating it with handprints. Kento breathed heavily as he watched his cock slip out from your hole. Before a drop slips out, he gently pushed two of his fingers in to make sure his load stays inside of you. And kindly enough, he pulled his panties back up for you.

"Thank you baby, you're too good for me." He combs your hair with his hands, putting it back into place before giving your cheek a soft kiss. You turn around and do the same, but this time on his lips.

"I love you, Kento. So much." You smiled, still a bit overstimulated but it was nothing you couldn't take. Your legs were a bit weak though, and it was time for you two to leave.

Just a few finishing touches before leaving, you made sure to fix straighten your top again as Nanami does the same to his signature animal print tie.

You turned to the untouched sets on the rack he had taken for you earlier, giggling as you had completely forgotten they were there. "I guess I didn't get to try them on," You smiled as you bunched up the hangers in your hand.

"I'm sure you'd still look beautiful in all of them regardless," He responded, picking up the bags off the floor and opening the door. Luckily no one was wandering the halls outside.

You rolled your eyes, walking out into the open as if you weren't stuffed with his cum right now. Kento walked beside you as he caressed your soft hair from the back, giving you another kiss on your head. "Hold on," Confused, you stopped in your tracks as he walked off somewhere else, calling out for one of the workers.

She was occupied with arranging the underwear into the sizing baskets. "Yes, may I help you?" She approached you both. It was actually the same girl from earlier.

"I'd like to buy everything in this store please, for my girlfriend over here." He asked, and he was serious. I mean, he's the Kento Nanami.

⊹ ࣪ ˖ ⤳ © luvwestwood ‘24. all works are owned by me, and originally come from my own head. please do not re-post on a third party platform without my permission!

⊹ ࣪ ˖ ⤳ as always, thank you for the love on each and every one of my posts. 🎀🩷

#nanami smut #jujutsu nanami #jujustu kaisen #jujutsu kaisen x reader #jjk nanami #nanami kento #nanami x reader #nanami kento smut #nanami kento x you #kento nanami #kento nanami x reader #kento nanami x you #nanami fluff

860 notes · View notes

batman-dc-imagines · 8 months ago

Note

Hi!!!! May I please request the J squad (Gotham) separately with a reader who works at the police office and is kinda like their inside mole? Like they let them know plans to catch them and are also always willing to help them escape and stuff? THANK YOU ❤️

A/N: All jobs are associated with the GCPD. Slite nsfw on Jerome's end.

Gotham!Jerome Valeska

Job: Police Officer

Oh you little tattletale.

He’s not too surprised by your efforts in trying to keep him from getting caught.

Hell practically half if not most of his followers are or used to be coppers before joining him.

You’re no exception.

Expect to get anonymous calls from him talking and asking about anything other than any more information on Gordon being on his tail or big plans the precinct has been working toward.

For example, one day he called you while on shift to just say, “When are ya gettin’ off cop doody?”.

He has a printed and digital copy of your work schedule.

As we see in Season 4,he has complete control over Arkhams guards and prisoners, even saying that he wants to make a show of his escape, further displaying the extent of his 'showman complex'.

For the sake of the prompt, if he had any minor inconveniences with his little escape he wouldn’t turn down you assisting him in his plans.

Though do keep in mind his showman complex and that unless you want to be discovered as a traitor, you’ll need to discuss with him a plan where you won’t be seen as an accomplice.

He’ll leave little gifts for you on your desk mostly to show his appreciation for all that you’ve done for him.

How he gets them there, you’re not too sure.

If you don't care for his gifts, he'll offer other ways to show his appreciation. (I'm winking under the eyepatch)

Gotham!Jervis Tetch

Job: Doctor

“Twinkle, twinkle, pretty doctor, how I long to unlock her. In this asylum, you shine with smite, but in my heart, you are my light.” (Yes, this is similar to him and Lee’s interaction.)

When he got sent to Arkham, there wasn’t much he was looking forward to.

Except getting back out on Gotham streets and getting revenge on James Gordon.

But when he meets you? Now there’s something to look forward to.

Once he realizes you’re on his side and help him escape the first time, expect to hear from him often.

Quite often in fact.

When he gets sent to Arkham a second time, doctor visits and check ups are a lot more fun now.

It’s like two kids in kindergarten, passing secret notes to one another while the teacher isn’t looking.

Some being about a plan for his escape while others are all laughs and giggles.

He is a gentleman when it comes to showing his gratitude for your assistance.

That is if he likes you of course.

Gotham!Jonathan Crane

Job: Forensic science technician

When you first met, Jonathan didn’t trust you.

In fact he hated you.

Anyone associated with the GCPD and Jim Gordon, he hated.

He blamed you all for the death of his father.

It took a bit of time and patience for him to fully trust you.

Even when you started becoming a full time mole for him, he still kept you at an arms length.

No matter how often you’d update him on the GCPD and their plans, or Jim Gordon’s whereabouts, he’d just give a vague form of acknowledgment or confirmation in your words.

The only reason he started to put his whole trust in you was when you started showing interest in his experiments.

Especially his toxin.

He starts enjoying your company more when you start helping him perfect his toxin.

You both find out it comes in handy that you’re able to get information on your former colleagues' fears without any suspicion.

He’s able to find weak points in practically every police officer in the precinct.

He starts showing his gratitude for your help later on.

Though he does tend to act vague about it.

237 notes · View notes

ask-whitepearl-and-steven · 1 year ago

Note

You put a lot small visual elements and details in that I never seem to notice on my first read, and it always makes rereading exciting. What’s a detail from the comic that nobody ever seemed to notice? I’m sure there are things that nobody has mentioned, especially from the early chapters, that you’d want to talk about

Oh man.........that's a great question.

The thing is, there are a lot of details that people don't pick up, but there are definitely eagle-eyed readers that also do! There are also details which most didn't pick up until someone posted about it, and now everyone knows!

There are also details which are actually... yet to be revealed as relevant! That's a secret tool that'll help us later. :)

But most of it is plot relevant decisions I make which make the story more full, but are not necessarily NECESSARY for full enjoyment.

For example, in the very first comic, when Earl approaches Steven....

Her eye isn't white! That was a fully deliberate decision. She didn't actually approach Steven because he wanted her to. That was a decision she made on her own!

Most of the white eye shenanigans in Season 1 were deliberate, albeit not very explicit. I suppose that worked out okay, though. Plus, many people DID catch on!

Also, this part in the Kindergarten comic:

...which people assumed was a power separate from everything, is actually just the first instance of Steven's Command power. The thing is, I hadn't settled into how to portray it at the time, and also - the gem is Corrupted! It doesn't respond to Steven's commands the same way normal gems do. I planned to explore that earlier initially, but in the end, decided to tie it into much later plot.

In Season 1, EP 38, Steven asks Earl to write her name.... and she does! But in gem, not English, because she doesn't know how to write in English.

She designates herself as White Pearl, putting the dash over the top diamond. It was at the time when she was still anxious about making Steven - White Diamond - angry with her.

And to add to the eye thing - during the Season finale of Season 2, when Steven wondered if Earl only came to see him because he forced her to - the comic where she finds him in the water proves otherwise!

Immediately when she grabs him and swims up, her eyes aren't white! She's doing it of her own accord.

Also, in Season 3's opening, when Rose is angry at what she THINKS is White Diamond, she almost has a slip of the tongue when talking about the past.

There's a very pointed reason that panel of Earl is right there next to Rose's cut-off 'My...'

Also, when Rose leaves Steven in the Containment Sphere - the Baby Jail Bubble - she unlocks it to leave, and you can pretty clearly see an interesting detail.

(which Steven, of course, doesn't notice.)

There's also a bit of a narrative tongue in cheek line-up which is accidental on Steven's part but still rings true:

(TVTropes editors caught this one! Hey TVTrope editors!)

Also, this very famous Seaglass foreshadowing:

The first instance of Steven connecting to tech was in the beginning of this season!

When Steven has a bad dream after fusing with Earl and forming Bleached Coral, there's a hidden detail in this reflective text from Nightmare Rose:

(It might be easier to read if you mirror-flip it.)

Another fun thing I enjoyed doing before I got busy with other stuff is gem language! Earl writes Steven notes in it to help him learn, and now signs with her English name,

In the Cluster Experiments comic, if you look at the panels before stuff starts to Happen, you can find a few Experiments hiding in the background. :)

In Amethyst's room, there is a Japanese stopsign and a d20 in the background.

In episode 25 of season 4, Steven is playing Moonlight Sonata!

In episode 33, the ship Steven connects to displays a bisection of the earth which showcases its lumpy core! Or rather, the megastructures that are hidden deep inside the mantle.

It also showcases a few geothermal coring sites made during the colonization.

And by the way, the drill Pearl built was actually a repurposed ship hull which was used for the Space Race ship in the original show!

And man there are actually... many more! But I had to skip over them because they are alluding to things which have not yet been explicitly revealed! :D

But even with this, I'm sure there are other ones I'm missing. If you think you have one that should be listed - throw it on a reblog or in the comments!

#chekhov answers

517 notes · View notes

theteasetwrites · 2 years ago

Text

The Dixon Problem

❧ Pairing: Daryl Dixon x Reader ❧ Era: Season 1 (The Beginning Is the End Is the Beginning series) ❧ Pronouns: she/her ❧ Warnings: swearing, mild violence ❧ Word Count: 5k

❧ Summary: Not everyone is happy with the Dixons’ presence in the camp, especially Shane. When things go haywire, the only solution is a compromise, and to let Daryl know you care.

❧ A/N: I realize I’m posting this after a weird little argument over the ethics of zooming in on a man’s crotch but here we are. This is a fanfiction blog, believe it or not. Anyway, here’s another fic set in the same universe as The Beginning (I really like doing these ok), and this one takes place between Chapter 4 and Chapter 5. I really wanted to do some oneshots that would’ve happened before they got together because idk it just seems to cool to read about them before they kissed at the CDC and sort of build up to that. I find it fun to hint at their burgeoning attraction to one another, and how they’re both kind of in denial about their little crushes lol. We all know it was love at first sight. Also I loved writing Daryl fighting with Shane it was so fun. Daryl should’ve punched Shane in the show don’t @ me.

A deep huff escaped your lips as the back of your hand wiped the dripping sweat from your brow. The sun was a few hours from setting, but Georgia summers were unforgiving, and even a setting sun would prove to be dangerous if you didn’t hydrate.

Taking a sip of water from the crinkly plastic bottle, you watched Lori skillfully sew up the rips in one of Shane’s shirts. It was a skill you had neglected, but at one point, you were pretty good with a machine. Hand sewing was something else entirely.

“You’re so good at that,” you said. “How’d you learn?”

Lori smiled as she looked at you, staring in awe. “My mom sewed, my granny sewed, and I wouldn’t be surprised if my great granny sewed, too.”

“That’s sweet… Maybe you could teach me sometime?”

“Sure, but I thought you were trying to get Mr. Crossbow to teach you how to hunt?” She spoke with a crooked smile, on the verge of laughing. You failed to see what was so funny, frankly.

But mostly, you were embarrassed. The warm blush on your cheeks and the butterflies doing somersaults in your belly betrayed you, though you just pretended none of it was there.

“Well, he, uh, said I should learn how to fight first. He said he’d teach me that, though.”

“Oh?”

“Mhm… Why are you laughing?”

Lori lowered her head until her hair covered her face, but you heard a few snorts and giggles from beneath the dark curtain.

“You’re so cute,” she said. “That’s all.”

“Cute? Why am I cute?”

“You just are…” She leaned closer to speak in a quiet voice. “I bet Daryl thinks you’re really cute.”

You scoffed, trying to laugh it off as you awkwardly nudged her shoulder with yours. “Stop. That’s not funny. Not true, either. I think he finds me annoying.”

“Oh, really?” she asked. “What about the little rock he cracked open for you? That doesn’t sound like the actions of a man who’s annoyed.”

That “little rock” was now your prized possession. You had one half, and you’d let Daryl keep the other. It was a simple gesture, but it meant the world to you. That rock was a geode, something your father would’ve added to his extensive collection. Maybe you were thinking too much into it, and maybe it was cliché, but you liked to think that it represented the last beautiful thing in the world. You kept it by your cot, on full display so it was the first thing you saw each morning. Sometimes, the translucent purple shards would catch the new light that streamed through your tent in just the most perfect way.

“He was just being nice,” you said. “Daryl’s… really nice. I mean, he’s a little… grumpy, but he’s got a good heart. I can tell. I wouldn’t have brought him here if I didn’t think so.”

Before Lori could respond with another teasing quip, you both flinched at the sound of Daryl, the man you were just talking, and thinking a little too deeply, about. His voice was raised, one decibel away from being a yell. It sounded like it was coming from the center of camp, near Dale’s RV, so you both jogged over, anxious to see whatever was causing Daryl to yell a series of curse words and a few other words you couldn’t yet make out.

“Stupid cop!” you heard, now getting closer. “Who the hell do ya think you are?! This ain’t Miami Vice.”

You stumbled upon Daryl, with his chest puffed up and his hands moving vigorously along with his hostile words, in some kind of argument with Shane, who only shook his head with his hands on his waist as the bowman hurled insults his way.

“Listen, Dixon,” replied Shane, who was visibly also beginning to lose his temper, “we gotta maintain some order ‘round here. Now, I don’t give a shit ‘bout what you and your white trash redneck brother used to get up to in bumfuck nowhere, but there’s women and kids here, and I don’t want this shit ‘round ‘em.”

Oh, noble Shane, you thought to yourself, but then again, you still had no idea what the men were arguing about, so maybe he had a point. Still, you did take some issue to being compared to a child, but you weren’t about to jump in the middle of a fight between two burly, hotheaded men for the sake of feminism.

“Are you fuckin’ kidding me?! It ain’t nothin’, Merle goes off into the woods to do it! Ain’t no women or children gonna get hurt. You’re just as stupid as you look, Columbo.”

“It ain’t them seein’ the drugs I’m worried about,” Shane replied, getting closer to Daryl until their chests were nearly touching. “It’s you and your ugly ass brother.”

Drugs? You knew Merle had a stash of drugs, including crystal meth, and most others figured it based on, well, everything about him, but you didn’t think Shane would pick a fight with Daryl over it. Maybe Merle himself, but not Daryl. Merle wasn’t even there that day, having taken his turn to go hunting, though he never brought back nearly as much as his brother. You weren’t sure if it was because Merle wasn’t a very good hunter, or because he just didn’t care enough to bring back food for your group, but either way, it was clear which brother was better.

“Man, that’s bullshit,” he replied, narrowing his eyes at Shane. “You wanna see a threat then look in the mirror. There’ll be a big arrogant prick starin’ back at ya.” Daryl punctuated his sentence by shoving the other man backwards, but before Daryl could strut away as he planned, Shane shoved him back.

“Watch yourself,” Daryl warned, voice low and raspy. “I don’t want your pig blood on my hands.”

He tried to brush past Shane, but the man was fuming. He shoved Daryl back once more, knocking him to the ground.

A puff of dirt swallowed his body as you let out a small gasp of disbelief. No one in the group had gotten physical with anyone like this yet. Maybe it was only a matter of time before it happened. After all, a group of several strangers under incredible physical and mental stress in the middle of the end of the world was a recipe for disaster, but you’d hoped it wouldn’t happen so soon.

All you could register was the sound of Daryl’s grunting before he sprung back up to sock Shane across the face, disorienting him. He soon struck back, but Daryl ducked and delivered a blow to Shane’s stomach.

Shane had managed to deliver a few blows of his own, but at this point, all you could focus on was thinking of a way to break them up without getting hurt yourself.

“H-hey!” you shouted out, along with Lori and several other women who’d gathered around, yelling to the men to stop. “Stop it!”

Dale was frantically climbing down the ladder of the RV, then greeted the scene with wide eyes. “Hey, hey! Break it up!” He managed to get his arms between the two of them, but he could only keep Shane back. Daryl even tried to get around Dale so he could deliver one last blow to Shane’s face, but T-Dog came up behind and pinned the enraged man’s arms back.

“Get offa me!” he yelled to T-Dog, then turned his attention back to Shane. “I’m gonna beat your ass, you hear me, bacon bits?!”

Dale stood between them, holding his hands out to keep them both at bay. Their chests swelled with heavy, panting breaths as their faces molded into their own unique scowls. Shane’s was terrifying, much more than Daryl’s. His dark brown eyes didn’t need to narrow at all, they were just as terrifying in their wideness. His mouth wasn’t agape, it was sealed shut as the breaths pumped out of his flared nostrils. He stood completely still, like a ticking time bomb. You’d never been more terrified of the man.

Daryl paced back and forth for a few feet on each side of him, his face much more natural looking, but still enraged. At least you could make some sense of Daryl in his anger. He didn’t send a shiver down your spine like Shane did. Well, and maybe you were a little partial to Daryl now, since he’d shown you kindness. In any case, the awkward silence that permeated the stiff, humid air was excruciating.

“Just calm down,” panted Dale, arms still outstretched between them. “What the hell is going on here?”

Shane huffed before speaking. “I was just tryin’ to have a civil conversation about the drug use goin’ on in this camp.”

“Drug use?” questioned Lori. “No, no way. No drugs, not around the kids. That’s the last thing we need right now.”

Daryl turned to look at Lori, not with anger, but confusion. He seemed troubled, unable to reconcile something in his head. His eyes squinted shut as he wiped his nose, which had just begun to bleed from the punch. He spat a glob of pinkish saliva onto the dirt ground, then turned back to face Shane.

“Talk to Merle,” was all he said. His voice was quieter now, almost timid, but still with an air of defensiveness.

He turned back again, in the direction of his tent. You met his glance for a moment, at which point he seemed to stop in his tracks. His foot backstepped, flashes of blue still on you until they averted to the ground. When he regained his focus, he moved quicker, more determined. Still, his confidence seemed drained after he looked your way, but all you could pay attention to now was Shane, who was walking directly towards you, huffing and puffing.

“What the hell were you thinkin’, bringin’ those meth heads here, huh? You stupid or somethin’? I thought you were some kinda… librarian.” He ended his sentence with a sarcastic chuckle.

Before you could respond, Lori spoke up, and thank God she did. You were still petrified by Shane’s aggression, and Lori knew him from before the fall. Maybe he’d actually listen to her.

“Stop it, Shane,” she scolded in an almost motherly tone. Fitting, since the argument between him and Daryl seemed more like that of children than two grown men in their thirties. “It’s done. No point in arguing about it.”

For your part, you took a moment to collect your thoughts, then spoke to Shane with as much bravado as you could muster. “It’s because of Daryl that we’re not starving to death,” you said.

Dale stepped forward, hand outstretched slightly to gesture towards you. “That’s a good point, but what about the drugs?”

You shook your head profusely. “I don’t know anything about any drugs.” That wasn’t true, you knew Merle was getting high, and that he was a dealer, but that honestly didn’t matter to you much at this point. As far as you were concerned, everything that had ever separated the human race from each other was out the window. Drug addicts were no different from Mormons now. Granted, Merle could be unpredictable, and you hated him, frankly, but Daryl and Merle seemed like a package deal, so you’d have to deal with both of them if your group was to reap the benefits of having a skilled hunter.

Plus, you might’ve fostered a bit of admiration for him. Friendly admiration, of course.

“Well, I just ain’t havin’ no crystal meth in this camp,” replied Shane. “And I’m about this close to killin’ your buddy, so’s as far as I’m concerned, this is your problem to solve if you wanna keep them here.”

Diplomacy wasn’t your strong suit, but if it kept Shane from kicking out the Dixon’s, you’d try your best to find some common ground.

“Compromise,” Dale said with a nod. “(Y/N), you should talk to Daryl, ask him to talk some sense into Merle when he gets back to camp. We give them shelter, they get rid of the drugs.”

It sounded more like an ultimatum than a compromise, but you were perhaps the only person who’d had any meaningful contact with the slightly more tolerable brother, so you put aside your reservations to head to the Dixons’ camp, several yards away from the rest of the group.

He was on one knee as he chopped the head off a squirrel on the sawed log he was using as a butcher block. The sound of the axe slicing through the flesh and digging into the wood was so powerful that you flinched, alerting the hunter to your presence.

Though he didn’t look your way. He simply set aside the axe and continued skinning the creature as if you weren’t there.

“You want a piece of me, too, woman?” he asked. “Whatever you gotta say, I ain’t in the mood.”

You bit your lip as you stood still, thinking of what to say. Daryl was tricky, you knew that. Sometimes he was nice to you, and sometimes he wanted nothing to do with you. No one in the camp knew how to deal with him, really. You only knew a little because you somehow found yourself trying to ingratiate yourself with him, but why? You still weren’t exactly sure.

“May I sit down?” you blurted out, thinking that might be the first step to talking to him.

He looked up at you then, with a suspicious glare.

“Why?”

Just as you were still trying to get used to talking to him, he was still trying to get used to your desire to talk to him in the first place. Why would a woman like you want anything to do with a man like him, anyway? Surely you had an ulterior motive, though he couldn’t deny there was something genuinely kind and soft about your face. Maybe even, dare he say, pretty? Not just physically, though he was painfully aware of that, but through and through, you were quite lovely. Well, that’s how it seemed, anyway.

Merle always said that women couldn’t be trusted, that if they weren’t childlike and dumb, they were manipulative and cunning. Nothing else, nothing in between. Of course, Daryl had a hard time believing that. People weren’t that simple, and Merle’s authority on the topic of women was questionable at best. Still, old habits die hard, and maybe he was just a little skeptical of your intentions. After all, no woman or man had ever shown this much interest in talking to him.

Daryl was, for all intents and purposes, a loser. He still felt like one, though he had to admit, when you brought him to your camp, insisting that your group needed him, he did feel a small sense of real, genuine pride, for the first time in his life. Maybe he had something to offer, something good he could do. Maybe you really wanted him there, and he wasn’t just a loser with a bad temper and a meth head brother.

His deeply ingrained insecurity, though, told him otherwise, and that you were only kind to him because of what he could offer your group, not because you actually appreciated him. But then again, the rest of the group had all but ignored him since he arrived, and you were the one who’d spoken more than five words to him at a time. That had to mean something, right?

“I want to talk to you,” you said simply. “So, can I?”

He chewed his lip as he looked you up and down, as if inspecting you. Wordlessly, he nodded, then lowered his head again to focus on the mutilated squirrel.

As you cleared your throat, you sat yourself on a dinky camping chair across from the fire pit. Both of you were silent for a little while, with only the sounds of flesh tearing from the muscle of the little furry critters Daryl was skinning. You watched with furrowed brows, though at a certain point, you had to stop looking, otherwise you’d get a little woozy, so you lifted your gaze to the top of Daryl’s head, covered in short, choppy brown hair.

Surprisingly, just before you were about to say something, Daryl spoke first. “I ain’t no meth head,” he said abruptly. “I don’t touch that shit.” Not anymore, he thought, but something stopped him. Could it be… embarrassment? Maybe shame. All he knew was there was a part of him that cared what you thought, for some odd reason. He’d trained himself not to give a damn about anything, though it was in his nature to. Why was your presence bringing out his sensitivity? It was a blessing and a curse. It hurts to care, he’d always thought. Nothing good could come of it. He cared once, before he knew how cruel people could be.

“I never said you did.”

“S’what you all think,” he replied. “Y’all think I’m some kinda… stupid redneck bastard.” Wouldn’t be wrong, a voice inside him retorted.

“I don’t think that.”

He finally raised his eyes again, glowering at you. “You will.”

It shouldn’t have hurt you, but it did, just a little bit. “I bet you I won’t.”

He shook his head and stood up to retrieve the red rag that was often dangling from his back pocket. Wiping his hands, he nodded towards you. “What’d ya really come over ‘ere for? They send ya over to kick me out?”

You shook your head immediately. “No, no. Not at all. Just… You need to tell Merle to quit with the drugs.”

Daryl scoffed, almost a laugh. “Askin’ Merle to give up crystal’s like askin’ him to cut off his own hand. ‘Sides, ya don’t think I’ve tried? Ain’t no use in it. Might as well jus’ kick us to the curb ‘cause it ain’t gonna happen.”

His apathy frustrated you, and you let out an exasperated, now quite irritated, puff of air. “So you’d rather live out in the woods by yourselves than in a group, with people who will look out for you?”

“None of these people will look out for me,” he scoffed.

“Well, I would.”

He looked your way again, this time not suspicious, but confused. “Why’d ya bring me and Merle here in the first place? All ya got to show for it is bein’ yelled at and bossed around by that asshole Shane.” He spat the man’s name out in obvious distaste.

“I told you,” you said, “I thought you would be able to help us… And you saved me. I’d be dead right now if it weren’t for you.”

He lowered his head again, busying himself by cleaning between his fingers with the rag in the hopes of distracting you from the obvious blush on his cheeks. When he didn’t respond, you realized you hadn’t asked him a similar question.

“Why’d you save me, anyway?” you asked, your voice a little more quiet, as if afraid of him even hearing it.

After all, you were a complete stranger, why should he have helped you? What you knew from human nature was that people often only helped others if they knew there was something in it for them. True altruism was hard to come by, and often not evolutionarily beneficial. Those who helped others and put themselves in danger often died out before their lineage could carry on. Well, that was your vague memories of anthropology class resurfacing, but it still applied.

Indeed, you yourself hadn’t been acting out of true altruism. You had decided to bring Merle and Daryl into the fold because they were hunters, and they could benefit your group by providing your people sustenance. But Daryl’s motivations were less clear.

He swallowed hard as thought for a moment, himself now forced with the reality of facing that question. Why did he help you?

For the next several moments, he transported himself to that day just a month ago, when he was trudging around in the woods outside Atlanta, listening to Merle ramble on about some drunken memory, a relic of his “glory days” that he seemed unable to forget about. They had no destination, no idea where they were going. They’d tried the refugee center in the city, but that had been overrun about as soon as it was set up. Merle was quite content to rough it, and so was Daryl, so long as there weren’t flesh-eating monsters roaming around.

When he heard the rather faint sound of a woman screaming, somewhere ahead in the maze of aspen trees dotting the humid forest, something in him switched, and though he remembered the muffled sound of Merle’s protesting, all he could hear at the time was the scream getting closer and closer.

Soon he was in a small clearing, setting sight on a decrepit creature. Below it were two squirming legs, belonging to the screaming woman who was just inches away from becoming something’s lunch.

Without hesitation, he lifted his bow to shoot, snagging the creature in the head until it fell less than gracefully onto your chest. Pushing the body off, you faced him, mouth panting and eyes hazy with tears.

He tried to think of what he thought then, but it was difficult to put himself in that position again. He only remembered your face, how scared you were. You seemed so fragile, and yet somehow brave enough to look him in the eye. Most of all, you were peculiar to him, different from anyone or anything he’d seen before. Of course, there was nothing particularly strange looking about you, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. You were just… special, with a calming aura of warmth around you, something he was instinctively drawn to for whatever reason.

So, how was he supposed to explain that? You seemed special, important, warm… Creepy. He knew that would’ve sounded creepy. He was already embarrassed from Shane’s display earlier, and his stomach stung to think of you seeing that cop strike him across the face, to appear weak. Once again, he wondered why he cared in the first place.

He finally settled for a somewhat satisfactory explanation. “S’just what people do.”

Indeed, he would’ve done it for anyone. That wasn’t the issue Daryl struggled with, he knew right from wrong, for the most part. He struggled with understanding why you looked at him the way you did, and why he found himself wanting to keep you safe even after the creature attacking you was long dead.

At least you seemed happy with that answer, as one corner of your lips upturned into a small smile. “Well, I am sure some people wouldn’t have done anything. I’m really grateful… And I really don’t want you to go. Merle… I will put up with him if it means you stay here, but if you could please talk to him, try to get him to at least hide the drugs better and maybe go further away from camp to do it, I’d be even more grateful.”

Though he had no idea how he was going to get Merle to agree to changing anything about himself, he couldn’t deny that you were convincing. Something about your wide, almost pleading eyes. Somehow, making you happy seemed to make him happy, too.

“I’ll try,” he said. “But I ain’t promisin’ anything. Merle don’t care ‘bout what I got to say.”

“Well, he should,” you said as you stood to your feet. “He’s your brother… I have a brother, too. We used to talk all the time, though we sort of lost touch before all this.” You gestured around vaguely, ending your sentence with a small nervous chuckle.

Daryl almost didn’t speak, didn’t want to ask what he was thinking, but the look on your face as your lips began to droop and your eyes became vague made him wonder if maybe you needed to talk about it.

“Where is he?” he asked simply, though he immediately began to regret it when he noticed you shifting awkwardly where you stood. “I mean… I, uh… Sorry.”

“It’s okay,” you replied with a shake of your head. “No, it’s fine. He’s, well… I don’t know where he is. Last time we talked he was in Atlanta. Actually, that’s why I was headed there when it happened.”

It seemed to be a universally agreed upon signifier. The fall, the turn, the apocalypse, the plague… Everyone called it something different, but what it all came down to was The End, or The Beginning, depending on who you asked.

“Sorry,” was all he could reply, though he found himself going further, speaking more than he normally would’ve. “Hope he’s all right.”

That meant more to you than anything anyone had ever said to you since the world turned. You hadn’t told anyone about your brother, and you weren’t sure why you decided to tell Daryl, but it felt right. In a world where everything was suddenly wrong, lots of things still felt right, all of which had to do with him. Strange.

“Thank you. I do too. He means a lot to me… I’m sure your brother means a lot to you, too, so I understand why you care so much about him. He’s lucky to have you as a brother.”

If Daryl wasn’t so strangely calmed by your presence in this moment, he might’ve protested to the assertion that Merle meant a lot to him, but he supposed he really did, whether or not Daryl liked it.

As he shifted his shoulders, he raised his hand to scratch his neck, chewing the inside of his bottom lip all the while. The unique little nervous mannerisms he had were already becoming part of your ever-growing encyclopedia of quirks Daryl displayed, and you had to say you found that quite endearing. Indeed, you truly felt that Daryl could become a friend. You wanted him to be a friend.

It reminded you that Daryl spent almost all of his time alone. Whenever Merle was gone or at the edge of camp getting up to his illicit activities, Daryl was by himself. You figured he had to get lonely, and surely the sole company of a man like Merle would eventually drive him insane, even if he was his brother.

“Daryl?” you asked, moving closer as you tried to telepathically direct his gaze up at you.

He did, and a flash of silvery blue eyes that caught little sparkles of light from the sun looked up at you. His eyes were quite deep set and narrow, making them seem at first glance to be cold and uninviting, but that wasn’t really the case at all. Now that you saw them in full view, there was mystery there, something waiting to be revealed. You had a feeling whatever it was, it was something lovely. Your curiosity made you eager to get to the bottom of it.

“Yeah?”

Even the strange softness of his often rough, gravelly voice struck you. As he licked his chapped lips, you found yourself trailing your eyes to his light stubble, sparse on his cheeks but more concentrated around his lips, which weren’t particularly full, but beautifully sculpted as if by delicate, intentional little hands. You found his face much more tolerable than his brother’s. Handsome, even. Perhaps not an A-list Hollywood movie star (certainly no one so clean-cut as Tom Cruise or Brad Pitt, both of whom you had at one point hung posters of on your closet door in the mid-nineties) but he had been blessed with good proportions and a pleasant visage that you only dwelled on for a moment until your subconsciousness took the image into its darkest recesses. The last thing you needed to do today was to admire a man’s physical appearance, though it did tempt you for just a few seconds. Maybe a few more.

“You should really join us for dinner tonight,” you said. “You know, around the fire… Dale’s going to make something special. I have no idea what, he says it’s a surprise.”

When his breath seemed to hitch and his muscles flexed in seemingly anxious response, you quickly tried to explain yourself. “I mean, I know it’s awkward, with the Shane thing… but Shane has watch during dinner tonight. Maybe you can just… talk to me, and Dale, Andrea, Amy, Glenn, Jacqui… We all sort of congregate, talk a little bit. I’m sure they’d like to get to know you more.”

He found himself wondering how to respond, how to tell you that he hated talking, especially to people he hardly knew. Then again, he liked talking to you. That was clear to him.

“Maybe… I dunno.”

Though you didn’t want to pressure him, it was hard not to try to convince him. You were shy sometimes, too, but the older you got, the more you realized that you needed people, and that couldn’t be more evident than right now, when people were hard to come by.

“All we have is each other,” you said. “You told me that the world’s never gonna be like how it was, and you’re right. We should never take people for granted anymore.”

He’d never wrap his head around the way you spoke sometimes, how you could be so articulate and intelligent, and at other times, so high-strung or bubbly or aloof… You were about as hard to read to him as he was to you.

“I’ll try,” was all he replied.

“That’s all that matters.”

When he briefly lurked around the fire that night, exchanging a few brief words with Dale and Andrea (and you, of course), you felt like you’d gotten somewhere further with the temperamental hunter.

He didn’t stay for long, and hardly ate any of Dale’s “mushroom mash,” but it was something, and though the day started with a fight between Shane and Daryl, it ended with the latter feeling just a little more welcome.

Most of all, you had no regrets about bringing Daryl Dixon to your camp. You had a feeling it was the right thing to do.

Thanks for reading! Likes, reblogs, and comments of any kind are always appreciated!

Masterlist

#the walking dead #the beginning series #daryl dixon x reader #daryl dixon #twd #the walking dead fanfic #daryl dixon fanfic #twd fanfic #norman reedus #norman reedus x reader #norman reedus fanfiction #the beginning oneshot #theteasetwrites oneshot #theteasetwrites fanfiction #theteasetwrites series

591 notes · View notes

theragamuffininitiative · 3 months ago

Text

Episode Ratings Guide: The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

(by yours truly)

Interested in watching a show about suave and silly secret agent spies foiling the plots of evil villainy at great hazard to themselves and looking great and wisecracking all the while? Not sure which of the 100+ episodes are the most worth watching? Got you covered!

This post contains the complete list of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. episodes, each of which are accompanied by a "summary/review" of one-or-two brief sentences and a rating number of 1-5 stars, 5 of course being the best rating and 1 the worst. These are not intended to be a full overview of any episode, but merely a personal opinion on those I think represent the characters and show the best, and display more pros than cons of being created in the 60s. These opinions are entirely my own. 👌

Note: I am posting this in more-or-less its original rough notes form, and some of the ratings come from episodes I only watched once which might be better rated with a second viewing. If I make any updates to these ratings, I will reblog so you can check the notes for that.

Also included here for science: notations indicating whether or not Napoleon (^) or Illya (*) were captured in the episode. (!) indicates both evaded capture that episode. There is some nuance to this, which I mostly left to my own determination: but mainly this is used for direct capture and imprisonment by Thrush, not being otherwise incapacitated. Note: I have not yet finished adding these notations and will be editing for that.

Currently, the entire show is available HERE on the Internet Archives for your watching pleasure. 😊

Episodes and their ratings are below the cut, listed by show order, not rating category.

Enjoy!

S1 Uncle episodes:

(S1 was arguably the best season overall, with a few exceptions, and the only one filmed in black and white.)

The Vulcan Affair: pilot and a good deal of fun, with a decent storyline and the first "innocent" female character that becomes a staple in each episode is actually very charming here as she has a lot of fun being a spy instead of a housewife. Precious little Illya though. Still 5 stars ^

The Iowa Scuba Affair: Fun plot and Napoleon being a good spy. Zero Illya. Good climax at the end though. 3 or 4 stars. ^

The Quadripartite Affair: intriguing plot with the fear gas, some good lines, and Napoleon's first time rescuing Illya. 4 stars. *

The Shark Affair: this one had a very interesting plot, not the best execution of it imho. Some good interaction between the boys though. The "innocent" is more comic relief than femme fatale which I actually enjoy. 3 Stars. ^* (but the capture was kind of intentional)

The Deadly Games Affair: Fun plot where Napoleon has a flirtatious on again off again relationship with a known Thrush agent - the will they/won't they in this case more often being will she try to kill him again. Hitler zombie makes an appearance. “Another tunnel. You've got a lot of gopher in you.” 4 Stars. ^

The Green Opal Affair: mind control island with cheetahs. weird all around, not enough Illya. 2 Stars. ^

The Giuoco Piano Affair: Sequel to Quadripartite, which is fun because Marian is back. Napoleon is wonderfully suave. Fun plot! Some good ole cultural insensitivities. 4 stars. ^

The Double Affair: pretty fun, not enough Illya, and "somewhere in the Austrian alps" over the Griffith Observatory made me laugh so hard. 3 Stars. ^

The Project Strigas Affair: I honestly don't remember much of the plot but it is a fun caper, but the shining points are the guest stars and it's worth it for that alone. Good amount of Illya too. 4 Stars. !

The Finny-Foot Affair: intriguing if swiss-cheesey plot, but the real draw is the interactions between Napoleon and little Chris. 4 Stars. ^

The Neptune Affair: they made Illya leave in the beginning but it was still enjoyable. We stan Harvey Muller. John Banner (Schultz) appearance! 3 Stars. ^

The Dove Affair: ridiculous episode, you have to not at all take it seriously and then you can have a great time. No illya, sad. 3 Stars. !

The King of Knaves Affair: one hilarious bit where I fights off an intruder for N. Otherwise 2 stars. ^

The Terbuf Affair: kind of a mess of an episode but the sincerity of the plot with Napoleon is nice. Illya is fun, even if the whole gypsy thing is a little eesh. Otherwise meh episode. 3 stars.^

The Deadly Decoy Affair: utterly charming and a romp. Our boys protecting an asset…or are they. Neat and silly. 4 or even 5 Stars. ^

The Fiddlesticks Affair: I don’t care for the Innocent girl in this one but the caper plot is solid and there are some very good bits with Illya and Napoleon. 5 stars. !

The Yellow Scarf Affair: not a good episode, ridiculous plot and culturally insensitive. Also no Illya. 1 Star. ^

The Mad, Mad Tea Party Affair: annoying episode, especially with the girl’s acting/character choices. Some fun with a character who infiltrates Uncle HQ who makes up for it a bit. 3 stars. !

The Secret Sceptre Affair: a little cringe in some moments but great story mixed in between Napoleon and his old mentor, plus his loyalty to Illya. 4 Stars. *

The Bow-Wow Affair: a weird one, but lots of Illya content, plus a fox named Napoleon. Easily 3 Stars. !

The Four Steps Affair: Weird and cringe in many ways and otherwise not amazing. The kid annoyed me. 2 Stars maybe. *

The See Paris and Die Affair: Napoleon highkey kidnaps a woman. Has the comedy of I and N fighting each other in character and Napoleon calling himself Javert. They hurt my boy *again*. 3 stars, would be 4 if the plot were better. ^

The Brain Killer Affair: the boys have to save Waverly. Not a bad episode, not a brilliant one. 3 Stars. ! (but Illya was briefly incapacitated)

The Hong Kong Shilling Affair: idk what even to do with this one,, it was wild and nope. 1 Star.

The Never Never Affair: a fun premise and solid execution. Also everyone wants to kill Illya whoops. Make the “Cesar Romero was tall” jokes here. 4 Stars.^

The Love Affair: Token religious cult episode. They hurt my boy and I wish they had played it up a little more with Napoleon but he had a job to do so. 3 Stars maybe. ^

The Gazebo in the Maze Affair: Love this one, it has everything to recommend it. 5 Stars. ^*

The Girls of Nazarone Affair: there's no real reason to watch this one but it is a Trip, it is Insane, and I did laugh incredulously. 2 Stars. ^*

The Odd Man Affair: a good plot with a guest spy, the innocent woman is very likeable, some angst with Napoleon and Illya being concerned about him. 4 Stars. ! (But Napoleon is down for the count)

S2 Uncle episodes:

(Things get a little or a lot sillier and the show takes a minute to fully realize it is now in color, but overall quite enjoyable.)

The Alexander the Greater Affair 1+2: not a bad romp, though not stellar for a season opener despite its two acts. (However, Tracy/Dorothy Provine is great as always.) Possibly the most complex torture/execution setup of the series, and the “possibly” says a lot about the show at large, but also they get caught Multiple Times (feat. mummy illya). 3 Stars.^*x??

The Ultimate Computer Affair: Brilliant and fun, Illya really shines in this one (even as a grubby cowboy). 4 to 5 Stars. *^ (but Illya's capture is intentional)

The Foxes and Hounds Affair: A caper, a farce, a delight. Innocent of the week and plot around her leaves something to be desired. Silliness abounds. 5 stars. *^

The Discotheque Affair: not my favorite plot, but Illya looks sharp in his red jacket and there are exploding vinyl records. 3 stars.*^

The Re-Collector's Affair: Lovely clever plot with a good bit of silliness regarding stolen art and nazis. N is his s1 suave spy self and I gets a rare chance with the girl and is fabulous as usual. 5 stars. ^

The Arabian Affair: once you look past several unfortunate casting and makeup choices and the whole white savior bit, this episode is a lot of fun actually lol. 3 stars. *

The Tigers are Coming Affair: nothing special to me about this plot, some good quips as usual. 2 stars. *

The Deadly Toy Affair: Angela Lansbury guests and is charmingly ridiculous. Fun plot, lots of antics, some great lines. 4 stars.

The Cherry Blossom Affair: not amazing, but the female character has a different nuance and the banter is great. But anyone not white is shown as an idiot le sigh. 3 stars. ^ (though Illya was arrested by good guys and then gave himself up so I don't think it really counts)

The Virtue Affair: everything to love in plot, characters, quips, and really stupid villains with really complicated schemes. 5 stars. *^

The Children's Day Affair: mixed reviews, it's a fun plot, but the villains (and writers?) are gross and weird, but also there's some really solid Illya and Napoleon moments. I'll probably give it 4 stars for those. ^*

The Adriatic Express Affair: second train episode. Amusing representation of one of Illya/David's fangirls and some fun banter in the cell. The female villain is fascinating but otherwise really poor showing. 2 stars. *^

The Yukon Affair: cultural/racial insensitivity aside, a very fun episode, and we love Murphy. 4 stars.*

The Very Important Zombie Affair: not very important, a few good scenes, some heavy cringe territory, 2 stars.

The Dippy Blonde Affair: ridiculous plot but that's the show. Some unique Thrush exposition and characters. 3 stars. *

The Deadly Goddess Affair: Napoleon gets knocked out and tied up twice in this one. Villains are cringe. Great moments of Illya happily seeing Napoleon into a forced marriage. 2 stars.

The Birds and the Bees Affair: 1 star episode. High points are Illya being a soft gentleman and the director made some great camera angle choices. The rest is dumb.

The Waverly Ring Affair: features Napoleon shouting gibberish happily, and a fun plot, and an Illya to save the day plus Napoleon being genuinely clever. 4-5 stars. ^

The Bridge of Lions Affair 1&2: So much to love. The capers! The silliness! Illya chasing cats! Waverly besting the baddies! "Really? Really. Really??" 5 stars.

The Foreign Legion Affair: SKIP. 1 star episode. Bad episode. So cringe. Find the scene at the end where Napoleon rides in on the halftrack and do not watch anything else.

The Moonglow Affair: if the plot were a book and not a 60s TV show it would be so clever but as it is it was fun. IK and NS spend most of the episode out of their minds and April Dancer comes to their rescue. Love her. 4 stars.

The Nowhere Affair: A decent enough idea of a plot but I disliked the resolution. Some fun moments thrown in, and I did like how N snapped back to himself. 2 stars. ^

The King of Diamonds Affair: A Delight! Please enjoy the insanity of the bad guys pretending to be British…or Italian…no one is sure. (And then please forgive the other British representation, especially the opening scene.) 5 stars.

The Project Deephole Affair: a hapless criminal gets caught in the middle of a major sting, ft another of N's gibberish moments and a delightfully antagonistic exchange between I and the baddie. Cringey fight between Napoleon and female villain. 3 stars. *

The Round Table Affair: Fun episode where a villain turns into a protagonist sort of. Not amazing but enjoyable. Silly knight stuff abounds. 3 stars.

The Bat Cave Affair: a ridiculous riot. Not a bad time. 3-4 stars, mostly bc lots of Illya. *

The Minus-X Affair: "Corridors suck!" We know, Illya. Featuring the super drug and anti-super drug trope, and jokes at N's suits' expense. Nuanced side characters. Random plot holes abound. 3 stars.^*

The Indian Affairs Affair: -1 stars, pulls all the Native American stereotypes in absolutely absurd ways, the villain is gross, really not enjoyable.

S3 Uncle episodes:

(The most ridiculous season and not my favorite. It's....a lot. But a few episodes make the exception to be highly enjoyable.)

The Her Master's Voice Affair: the girls controlled by the lullaby episode. Adult character makes as though to spank a teen girl character at one point, like what were the writers on. 2 stars tops.

The Sort of Do-It-Yourself Dreadful Affair: girl androids. 2 stars. Except for the sparkling banter while Illya is locked up.

The Galatea Affair: My fair lady meets parent trap. Illya is great as always. Would improve without the naked bar horse thing which I hate hate hate. Napoleon replaced by Mark. 4 stars, tbh would be 5 if not for that scene.

The Super-Colossal Affair: movie/mob episode, quite fun, ending was a little disappointing but not bad. 4 stars. ^*

The Monks of St Thomas Affair: "very inferior mustard" I and N both very good at their jobs to begin, monk bald caps, cringe with n and girl and inferior plot overall. 2 stars *^

The Pop Art Affair: golf opening. Illya is great as a groovy artist lol. Otherwise 2 or 3 stars at best.

The Thor Affair: DC/Tao/Syn shows up! Culturally insensitive stuff but not the worst? Maybe? Heh. The girl is fun, radio in her tooth lol. 2-3 stars overall.

The Candidate's Wife Affair: uh meh overall. But car scene with "don't you ever turn it off?" "Well it's not my fault, when you've got it you've got it." - truly iconic. 2 stars bc the politics are boring lol.

The Come with Me to the Casbah Affair: inferior episode. Best part is when Illya hides in the hotel and is a perfect gentleman to the girl of the episode. 1-2 stars.

The Off Broadway Affair: 1-2 stars. Funny, otherwise unremarkable, and a bit cringe. Illya on Broadway lol.

The Concrete Overcoat Affair 1 and 2: Clever storyline but with So Much going on. Napoleon's storyline is more insane and comic than usual. Thrush woman hurts Illya and I loathe her so deeply, more angst than usual. 4-5 stars for cleverness with some serious plot. *^

The Abominable Snowman Affair: best features: Illya in flannel and Napoleon's failure to get either girl at the end. No one ever explained the abominable snowman part. 2 stars. ^*

The My Friend the Gorilla Affair: almost unwatchable episode. Illya has great lines. 1 star. *^

The Jingle Bells Affair: for a Christmas episode, kinda meh. Some heart and some laughs but nothing outstanding? 3 stars.

The Take Me to Your Leader Affair: Illya gets the girl this time (though somewhat against his wishes). N gets death by wind tunnel?? Fun fake aliens and Illya sings. 4 stars ^*

The Suburbia Affair: The plot is mostly meh but the set up and gags are golden. 4 stars. *

The Deadly Smorgasbord Affair: no illya. Worse! Fake stand in non-Illya. Decent plot except for the death by sun tan part. 2-3 stars ^

The Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum Affair. Amazing Illya content. Mutiny on ship controlled by Thrush and a drunk captain. 5 stars. *

The Napoleon's Tomb Affair: Napoleon jokes are perfect, otherwise very meh. 2+ stars.

The It's All Greek to Me Affair: Absolute farce, slapstick. Waverly to the rescue is the best part. 2+ stars.

The Hula Doll Affair: Absolutely charming episode! N is forced to pretend he's a Thrush operative, as their captive, and protects their new secretary. I spies on the mother Thrush and is adorable. 5 stars. ^*

The Pieces of Fate Affair: less slapstick, solid plot. The author with amnesia and Thrush Diaries one. Less than stellar execution. 3-4 stars.

The Matterhorn Affair: I don't even know where to begin. I don't have words. What even. They brought the slapstick back. But Hal Smith appears so? And the story is actually pretty heartwarming? Cute ending. 3 stars.

The Hot Number Affair: a worthless plot but an amazing time. Stupid and silly and great. The operator conversation. The kazoos! Sonny and Cher. Illya's glaring at Napoleon. 5 stars.

The When in Roma Affair: had a lot of potential. Cute scene with Illya and precocious little boy. Stolen bus. The ending downgraded this episode from solid to disappointing. 3 stars.

The Apple a Day Affair: Quite terrible honestly. I's part of the plot is ok but N's is a train wreck of the slapstick disaster. 2 stars.*

The Five Daughters Affair (1and2): 2 stars probably. Lots of little stories in one. Some really nice moment but far too few.

The Cap and Gown Affair: worthless episode, but really cute scruffy hippie Illya flirting. 2 stars.

S4 Uncle episodes:

(Here the show returns to a much more serious bent, but loses a certain amount of charm it had in the beginning.)

The Summit Five Affair: really stupid villain, ok plot, questionable directing, but the best part is Napoleon being suspected of double agenting and Illya not believing it for a second. 3 stars. ^*

The Test Tube Killer Affair: solid plot with mediocre execution. Not much in the way of Illya content even though he and N share screen time the whole episode. 3 stars.

The J for Justice Affair: again an intriguing plot but not much real content for Illya and Napoleon. 3 stars.

The Prince of Darkness Affair 1and2: thermal prism episodes. 3 stars.

The Master's Touch Affair: Nice plot. Napoleon rescuing Illya from being tortured and used as a pawn. N is great. 4-5 stars. *

The Thrush Roulette Affair: Interesting episode. Plot not super well executed, prolly due to bad pacing. Illya hypnotized into attacking Napoleon. Bad guy gross. 3 stars. *

The Deadly Quest Affair: Great melodramatic episode, terrible directing choices. Illya is held in a gas chamber and Napoleon must rescue him while being hunted. Suspend your belief a little when N and the Girl are dodging bullets and hiding behind literally nothing and this is a 5 star episode. *

The Fiery Angel Affair: a more culturally sensitive episode than usual but not by much lol. Wonderful Illya content, solid plot tbh, and no girl for Napoleon to woo. 4 stars.

The Survival School Affair: sadly no Napoleon. An okay enough and engaging plot. Illya had an entire episode to himself and they barely let him snark anyone. 3 stars.

The Gurnius Affair: Evil Illya! (Faking it.) Genuinely enjoyable and almost silly again. The photographer girl is fairly likeable actually. 3 stars ^

The Man from THRUSH Affair: zero illya equals sad. But an interesting plot and side characters. 3 stars.

The Maze Affair: charming! A return to some silliness but maintaining the drama. Illya is amazing. Thrush displays the worst target practice ever (say they were honing the gun, that works better). Random girl found halfway through who had no real purpose but hey. 5 stars. ^*

The Deep Six Affair: enjoyable, I and N get taken in by British fellow Uncle agent and his fiance, and also get dragged by Waverly multiple times. 3 stars.

The Seven Wonders of the World Affair (1and2): sad for a series end tbh, and the director did not know what they were doing it all. Docility drugs? Secret cult in a secret desert in the Himalayas?? The Shark Affair did this much better. 2 stars. ^*

Bonus! TMFU Movie: The Fifteen Years Later Affair: probably 3-4 stars, it's mostly fun for the affectionate nods to the original series and seeing our two best silly spies together. Nothing super special about the plot.

#some of these feature zero info on what to actually expect from the episode but i may fix that lol #ragamusings #episode guide #the man from u.n.c.l.e.#tmfu #episode ratings #illya kuryakin #napoleon solo #60s tv shows

22 notes · View notes

bridgerteon · 1 month ago

Text

Why I love Colin Bridgerton? (Ft. Katara from ATLA)

Although I am a Kanthony shipper, I also love Polin. Pretty much I love all Bridgerton couples. Personally though, I have a soft spot for Polin. I love Penelope Featherington from the start, but I gradually fall in love with Colin Bridgerton and wishing I have a real-life Colin to date with.

To be honest, in the beginning, Colin is not my favourite Bridgerton. However, I have observed him that he is funny, caring, sensitive, emotional, and is respectful and listens to women (unless it's Marina since he's a lovesick idiota that can't recognise the deception, but I can understand when someone is infatuated and unaware. It happened to me as well until I recognised the red flags later on. Dude, I get you). So he has my respect from the get go.

Ever since season 3 though, I started to LOVE Colin more. Because of five reasons:

1. He's a sensitive boi with almost no toxic masculinity, listens to women, and supportive to the woman he loves, Penelope. He's that rare of a boi.

2. He reminds me of myself. A shy, introverted, unimportant and feeling person who wants to see the best of others, but open themselves to people they are really close to. I see myself through him, an unworthy person deserved to be loved. Same goes when I'm comparing to Luke Newton (my current crush 🤭). I feel like Luke plays himself in Bridgerton, heh.

3. He's not Anthony Bridgerton. Rather than moping and having excuses to not get the girl (I love you Anthony, my first Bridgerton crush. But you are a handful and an egotistical idiot), Colin does the opposite. Once he realises he's falling harder for Pen, he immediately decides to pursue and marry her. That takes guts and being desperate. He has my full respect.

4. He never forces anyone. He wants to help Pen and his family, but he'll back off if they don't need his help. I like that he listens. Though he does tend to be a hero to fix the mess and willing to improve himself for Pen to be proud of and that he is enough. He has flaws, but he's relatable.

5. The most important and nostalgic one: He reminds me of Katara from Avatar: the Last Airbender, theme wise.* Especially in regards to the scene that made me understand and love Polin: the Betrayal Scene or the Lady Whistledown Reveal Scene.

*(Technically Katara reminds me of Viscountess Kathani Bridgerton, personality wise. I heard lots of comparisons between Zutara and Kanthony, both ships I love, but that's another story to tell).

Let's compare between Colin Bridgerton and Master Katara and why they are both similar, theme wise.

Exhibit 1: the betrayal

In this one, I love the betrayal scene in Bridgerton way more than in ATLA.

Colin is heartbroken again because he realises Penelope is Lady Whistledown and therefore assumes Pen is deceptive, like what happened to his failed engagement with Marina, via LW. All the lies and deceits gave him love PTSD, and the uncertainty if Penelope loves him genuinely or is just pretending. The fact that Luke Newton cried in that scene displays it as heartbroken instead of anger. I LOVE THAT!!! Kudos to Master Luke Newton for being exhausted and emotional during that scene!

The Polin betrayal scene is soooo much better than the ATLA betrayal scene when Katara has to fight against Zuko for choosing the Fire Nation over Saving the World and Choosing Good. I prefer both anger and heartbroken over just anger. But then again Katara and Zuko are not that close, because they are ✨enemies✨ even though they had a heart-to-heart convo. But imagine if Katara cried in front of Zuko during the fight, like the Polin betrayal scene... It would be a divergence indeed. I hope Netflix can make that scene as heartbreaking for the live-action ATLA.

Exhibit 2: Paaaiiiinnnn (Pain)

Both Colin and Katara are hurting because Penelope and Zuko, respectively, hurt them for deceiving them. I get them. Colin and Katara wanna hurt Pen and Zuko so the latter can understand the feeling the former has been through.

But in this one, this is the reason why I'm not bothered nor upset by the "planned entrapment" comment. (Though to be honest, Colin started it! Pen did not do anything to "entrap" him other than just sitting there being sad, being very demure, very mindful, and doing absolutely nothing to impress except being herself. And then Colin have a love whiplash that caused him to fall in love with her. Heh). Blame Katara; she said it way worse than Colin. Her threatening words to Zuko from that scene above are:

"You might have everyone else here buying your... transformation, but you and I both know you struggled with doing the right thing in the past. So let me tell you something right now... you make one step backward, one slip up, give me one reason to think you might hurt Aang, and you won't have to worry about your destiny anymore, because I will make sure your destiny ends... right then and there... permanently."

Like please? Katara's threats are so frightening, Colin's comment is just a minor slap to me. But there is one major difference why he's saying it to hurt Pen: because he still loves her. If he doesn't love her, it would be less painful, but unfortunately he does love her, so he deserves to be hurt. But he ain't gonna break the engagement since he still wants to marry her: she's the missing link to his life's purpose and they have the ✨connection✨. Colin just wants to hear from Pen and be reassured that this is not an act. Meanwhile, Katara does not "love" Zuko so she gets a pass on angry love confessions and being "entrapped" (though I wish she does... But I digress).

Overall, I love Colin Bridgerton (and Penelope Featherington too!). I completely understand his perspective. And how all his qualities, including having similar emotions to Katara, made me root for his love story with Pen. Same goes with Pen as well, from being a wallflower to being a popular woman with goals and achievements is a beautiful transition. Polin will always have a soft spot for me.

P.S. If Zutara is canon, their child would be like Colin Bridgerton. 🤭

#bridgerton #colin bridgerton #penelope featherington #polin #luke newton #nicola coughlan #analysis #comparing colin to katara from ATLA #because it makes sense to me

16 notes · View notes

too-many-rooks · 5 months ago

Note

Okay I need to know, out of all the Thomas Levin content you watched, which ones were worth watching?! I kind of want to check out Alfa

Ooh that’s a good question - I will add the disclaimer that I’ve absolutely not watched 100% of any of these shows (except for Alex Rider, which I’ve somehow watched 300% of,) I’m mostly just hunting for Levin scenes that could be interesting seen through the lens of Yassen - but there’s definitely some that have drawn me in more than others, there’s also a substantial amount I’ve only been able to find only in Danish, with Danish subs.

His episode of Unit One is pretty fun, and thanks to Mads Mikkelson fans, it’s fairly easy to find links on reddit to the episodes that will also have subtitle files you can important into a video player.

His episode of Taxa from when he was like 20 is on drtv, full Danish but is still quite fun to skip through to just see his scenes, it’s fairly easy to pick up on the context clues to follow the story.

His scenes in ‘Those who kill’ and ‘Strike Back’ are brilliant, but the shows are really hard to find and I had to buy them, so tricky. I might be able to isolate his scenes and share them, but not totally sure, my usual screen recording software doesn’t have sound .

These next ones were easier to find on streaming, at least in the uk, on Netflix or channel 4 has a lot of them -

Smother, bit meh, might give it a miss, but him being a dad to a teenager is quite cute.

Borgen can be interesting, very heavy on the politics - I didn’t dwell on this one much, as a lot of his scenes are either presenting the news, or in meetings discussing the news, but his character is an little shit in a fairly fun way.

Stockholm Requiem I got more into, and he’s a pretty central character who gets up to some interesting shit - it is *dark* however, and fairly heavy on the child murder.

Seaside hotel (gifs upcoming) is quite a fun show, though there’s some tonal disparity there, bc it’s basically a lighthearted show about people on holiday on the 1930s-40s, and he’s playing a Jewish man fleeing a Nazi work camp, but I enjoyed this show. He has a sweet little romance.

Baby fever is a really fun show - it’s a comedy about a woman who works at a fertility clinic and breaks into the sperm bank Levin manages when drunk and inseminates herself - there’s supposed to be another season soon (today, maybe?) which he’s also in, and I’ll definitely be checking out for gif making potential

Alfa/Grow is good - it’s another fairly dark crime drama that’s got multiple storylines converging together around the drug trade in Copenhagen, his story line is as a member of this secretive police unit acting as a mentor to one of the main characters, whose father was involved in the drug trade but has become a cop. An interesting role for him - he’s the dad of a teenager again, which I enjoy, and is a bit of an ass.

+I will say in my Levin studies, I’ve definitely noticed some typical archetypes he tends to fit into - full blown criminals who can and will murder you, assholes who are really good at their jobs (Yassen fits into the overlap there 😅) and a few, much rarer, genuinely nice guys trying their best. I might make some kinda Venn diagram to display this crucial data bc I do already have this info in a table, including important subcategories, like ‘beard?’ Or ‘dad?’ Just not totally sure how to present this information 😅😅

#Thomas Levin #yassen gregorovich

15 notes · View notes

sunskate · 3 months ago

Text

Skate Ontario August Sectionals RD:

at the boards- Sheri Moir and Cara Moir for IAMO, Benjamin Brisebois for IAM, Mitch Islam, Carol Lane, Paul Macintosh and more

Juniors- Layla and Alex need to manifest drawing later numbers in the skate order lol at Next Gen they skated 3rd, here they skated 1st - it didn't matter that much here (it did a little - judge 7 Rhonda Vanderveen gave them 4.75 in skating skills - huh?), but in bigger competitions, skating this early can change your ranking bc judges are more conservative at the start

they look good, the reversed pattern is still a challenge like it was last season. they have beautiful skating quality but are losing points there. they're both so strong, and it shows in the elements - somehow when she's in the air - not talking the big lift, but other moments in the choreo - maybe it’s timing? but they maybe display less ease in that than other aspects. they're leading, but they probably deserve to be further ahead

Liv Corneil/Alex Emery from IAMO have progressed a lot in their skating and unison - they look like an IAMO team - their contact with the ice has more depth to it. they had T calls at the starts of both parts of the pattern, but they were one of the few teams who were truly on the beat for much of the paso. they're in 5th

the two IAMO teams were the only ones today with level 4 twizzles

i like the two Mariposa teams - Summer Homick/Nicholas Buelow are brand new and have gelled quickly. he's talented, partners well, and she's taking to dance quickly considering she was a pairs skater til earlier this year. this outing of the RD was more solid than at Next Gen. Martins/Kowalczyk had more difficulty today but rallied. looking forward to seeing their tango FD tomorrow. Mitch Islam looked like he was stalking the boards and dancing with them

Caroline Kravets/Aiden Dotzert are another new team - they made a big improvement over July sectionals, like they'd worked out the flow of the program more. they're in 3rd. Paul Macintosh is one of their coaches

Seniors- omg this was enjoyable lol Lily and Nathan!! i keep looking for the archived video because i want to see this again - this was hot. they look confident and like they attacked this. they're skating and performing bigger. what is it when these teams are carving big ice with deep edges - once they get their levels too, watch out

it's really interesting seeing them side by side with Bashynska/Beaumont - because they did get level 3s in the MiSt and PSt

but i noticed that B/B have these hitches in their program where Nadiia has to pretty much stop her flow - she's a dancer with a lot of training but loses her carriage at times. he does not lose his. i think it's a partnering issue, where she's having to compromise to follow him at her own expense, and he could be taking better care of her. that's my take on it today. because after noticing that about B/B, it looked pretty clear how Lily and Nathan skate more as one, and there are no hitches. they're more balanced and in tune with each other. so they need their levels! lol i know it's easier said than done. B/B and H/L are in 1st and 2nd

i adore Leia and Pietro's RD - it's so charming and full of details that are perfect with the music and the lyrics. i want the whole crowd to yell Tequila at the right moment for them, can we give them that? they nicked the boards and had a fall, but they're in 3rd

Alisa Korneva/Kieran MacDonald are newly senior and did great here. nice program, really good music cut - another Kitchener/Waterloo team with Paul Macintosh. i think Kieran's mom is one of their coaches. nice skating. though there was an off balance moment where it looked like her hand was going to go in front of his skates. idk maybe she wasn't that close, but oof

Alyssa Robinson/Jacob Portz - they had twizzle issues today, but they have one of the best of the many Saturday Night Fever RDs - they're capturing the 70s flavor well among all these disco programs. and i want to see their lift again

both Ritter/Brykalov and Roberts/Alis had new costumes since Lake Placid, Shilling and Baeten- i want to tell him not to stop performing before the very end. i'm so curious who did the choreo for all these programs - they all have good stuff and seem well considered for each team

#iamo #skate ontario sectionals #august 16 2024

7 notes · View notes

theculturedmarxist · 1 year ago

Text

It has been clear for some time that US corporate news media have explicitly taken a side on the Ukraine War. This role includes suppressing relevant history of the lead-up to the war (FAIR.org, 3/4/22), attacking people who bring up that history as “conspiracy theorists” (FAIR.org, 5/18/22), accepting official government pronouncements at face value (FAIR.org, 12/2/22) and promoting an overly rosy picture of the conflict in order to boost morale.

For most of the war, most of the US coverage has been as pro-Ukrainian as Ukraine’s own media, now consolidated under the Zelenskyy government (FAIR.org, 5/9/23). Dire predictions sporadically appeared, but were drowned out by drumbeat coverage portraying a Ukrainian army on the cusp of victory, and the Russian army as incompetent and on the verge of collapse.

Triumphalist rhetoric soared in early 2023, as optimistic talk of a game-changing “spring offensive” dominated Ukraine coverage. Apparently delayed, the Ukrainian counteroffensive launched in June. While even US officials did not believe that it would amount to much, US media papered over these doubts in the runup to the campaign.

Over the last three months, it has become clear that the Ukrainian military operation will not be the game-changer it was sold as; namely, it will not significantly roll back the Russian occupation and obviate the need for a negotiated settlement. Only after this became undeniable did media report on the true costs of war to the Ukrainian people.

Overwhelming optimism

In the runup to the counteroffensive, US media were full of excited conversation about how it would reshape the nature of the conflict. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told Radio Free Europe (4/21/23) he was “confident Ukraine will be successful.” Sen. Lindsey Graham assured Politico (5/30/23), “In the coming days, you’re going to see a pretty impressive display of power by the Ukrainians.” Asked for his predictions about Ukraine’s plans, retired Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges told NPR (5/12/23), “I actually expect…they will be quite successful.”

Former CIA Director David Patraeus, author of the overhyped “surge” strategy in Iraq, told CNN (5/23/23):

I personally think that this is going to be really quite successful…. And [the Russians] are going to have to withdraw under pressure of this Ukrainian offensive, the most difficult possible tactical maneuver, and I don’t think they’re going to do well at that.

The Washington Post’s David Ignatius (4/15/23) acknowledged that “hope is not a strategy,” but still insisted that “Ukraine’s will to win—its determination to expel Russian invaders from its territory at whatever cost—might be the X-factor in the decisive season of conflict ahead.”

The New York Times (6/2/23) ran a story praising recruits who signed up for the Ukrainian pushback, even though it “promises to be deadly.” Times columnist Paul Krugman (6/5/23) declared we were witnessing “the moral equivalent of D-Day.” CNN (5/30/23) reported that Ukrainians were “unfazed” as they “gear up for a counteroffensive.”

Cable news was replete with buzz about how the counteroffensive, couched with modifiers like “long-awaited” or “highly anticipated,” could turn the tide in the war. Nightly news shows (e.g., NBC, 6/15/23, 6/16/23) presented audiences with optimistic statements from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other figures talking about the imminent success.

Downplaying reality

Despite the soaring rhetoric presented to audiences, Western officials understood that the counteroffensive was all but doomed to fail. This had been known long before the above comments were reported, but media failed to include that fact as prominently as the predictions for success.

On April 10, as part of the Discord leaks story, the Washington Post (4/10/23) reported that top secret documents showed that Ukraine’s drive would fall “well short” of its objectives, due to equipment, ammunition and conscription problems. The document predicted “sustainment shortfalls” and only “modest territorial gains.”

The Post additionally cited anonymous officials who claimed that the documents’ conclusions were corroborated by a classified National Intelligence Council assessment, shown only to a select few in Congress. The Post spoke to a Ukrainian official who “did not dispute the revelations,” and acknowledged that it was “partially true.”

While the Post has yet to publish the documents in full, the leaks and the other sources clearly painted a picture of a potentially disastrous counteroffensive. Fear was so palpable that the Biden administration privately worried about how he could keep up support for the war when the widely hyped offensive sputtered. In the midst of this, Blinken continued to dismiss the idea of a ceasefire, opting instead to pursue further escalating the conflict.

Despite the importance of these facts, they were hardly reported on by the rest of corporate media, and dropped from subsequent war coverage. When the Post (6/14/23) published a long article citing Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s cautious optimism about the campaign, it neglected to mention its earlier reporting about the government’s privately gloomier assessments. The documents only started appearing again in the press after thousands were dead, and the campaign’s failure undeniable.

In an honest press, excited comments from politicians and commentators would be published alongside reports about how even our highest-level officials did not believe that the counteroffensive would amount to much. Instead, anticipation was allowed to build while doubts were set to the side.

Too ‘casualty-averse’?

By July, Ukrainian casualties were mounting, and it became clearer and clearer that the counteroffensive would fail to recapture significant amounts of Ukrainian territory. Reporting grew more realistic, and we were given insights into conditions on the ground in Ukraine, as well as what was in the minds of US officials.

According to the Washington Post (8/17/23), US and Ukrainian militaries had conducted war games and had anticipated that an advance would be accompanied by heavy losses. But when the real-world fatalities mounted, the Post reported, “Ukraine chose to stem the losses on the battlefield.”

This caused a rift between the Ukrainians and their Western backers, who were frustrated at Ukrainians’ desire to keep their people alive. A mid-July New York Times article (7/14/23) reported that US officials were privately frustrated that Ukraine had become too afraid of dying to fight effectively. The officials worried that Ukrainian commanders “fear[ed] casualties among their ranks,” and had “reverted to old habits” rather than “pressing harder.” A later Times article (8/18/23) repeated Washington’s worries that Ukrainians were too “casualty-averse.”

Acknowledging failure

After it became undeniable that Ukraine’s military action was going nowhere, a Wall Street Journal report (7/23/23) raised some of the doubts that had been invisible in the press on the offensive’s eve. The report’s opening lines say it all:

When Ukraine launched its big counteroffensive this spring, Western military officials knew Kyiv didn’t have all the training or weapons—from shells to warplanes—that it needed to dislodge Russian forces.

The Journal acknowledged that Western officials simply “hoped Ukrainian courage and resourcefulness would carry the day.”

One Post column (7/26/23) asked, “Was Gen. Mark Milley Right Last Year About the War in Ukraine?” Columnist Jason Willick acknowledged that “Milley’s skepticism about Ukraine’s ability to achieve total victory appears to have been widespread within the Biden administration before the counteroffensive began.”

And when one official told Politico (8/18/23), “Milley had a point,” acknowledging the former military head’s November suggestion for negotiations. The quote was so telling that Politico made it the headline of the article.

Even Rep. Andy Harris (D-Md.), co-chair of the congressional Ukraine Caucus, publicly questioned whether or not the war was “winnable” (Politico, 8/17/23). Speaking on the counteroffensive’s status, he said, “I’ll be blunt, it’s failed.”

Newsweek (8/16/23) reported on a Ukrainian leadership divided over how to handle the “underwhelming” counteroffensive. The Washington Post (8/17/23) reported that the US intelligence community assessed that the offensive would fail to fulfill its key objective of severing the land bridge between Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine and Crimea.

As the triumphalism ebbed, outlets began reporting on scenes that were almost certainly common before the spring push but had gone unpublished. One piece from the Post (8/10/23) outlined a “darken[ed] mood in Ukraine,” in which the nation was “worn out.” The piece acknowledged that “Ukrainian officials and their Western partners hyped up a coming counteroffensive,” but there was “little visible progress.”

The Wall Street Journal (8/1/23) published a devastating piece about the massive number of amputees returning home from the mine-laden battlefield. They reported that between 20,000 and 50,000 Ukrainians had lost one or more limbs as a result of the war—numbers that are comparable to those seen during World War I.

Rather than dwelling on the stalled campaign, the New York Times and other outlets focused on the drone war against Russia, even while acknowledging that the remote strikes were largely an exercise in public relations. The Times (8/25/23) declared that the strikes had “little significant damage to Russia’s overall military might” and were primarily “a message for [Ukraine’s] own people,” citing US officials who noted that they “intended to demonstrate to the Ukrainian public that Kyiv can still strike back.” Looking at the quantity of Times coverage (8/30/23, 8/30/23, 8/23/23, 8/22/23, 8/22/23, 8/21/23, 8/18/23), the drone strikes were apparently aimed at an increasingly war-weary US public as well.

War as desirable outcome

The fact that US officials pushed for a Ukrainian counteroffensive that all but expected would fail raises an important question: Why would they do this? Sending thousands of young people to be maimed and killed does nothing to advance Ukrainian territorial integrity, and actively hinders the war effort.

The answer has been clear since before the war. Despite the high-minded rhetoric about support for democracy, this has never been the goal of pushing for war in Ukraine. Though it often goes unacknowledged in the US press, policymakers saw a war in Ukraine as a desirable outcome. One 2019 study from the RAND Corporation—a think tank with close ties to the Pentagon—suggested that an effective way to overextend and unbalance Russia would be to increase military support for Ukraine, arguing that this could lead to a Russian invasion.

In December 2021, as Russian President Vladimir Putin began to mass troops at Ukraine’s border while demanding negotiations, John Deni of the Atlantic Council published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal (12/22/21) headlined “The Strategic Case for Risking War in Ukraine,” which laid out the US logic explicitly: Provoking a war would allow the US to impose sanctions and fight a proxy war that would grind Russia down. Additionally, the anti-Russian sentiment that resulted from a war would strengthen NATO’s resolve.

All of this came to pass as Washington’s stance of non-negotiation successfully provoked a Russian invasion. Even as Ukraine and Russia sat at the negotiation table early in the war, the US made it clear that it wanted the war to continue and escalate. The US’s objective was, in the words of Raytheon boardmember–turned–Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, “to see Russia weakened.” Despite stated commitments to Ukrainian democracy, US policies have instead severely damaged it.

NATO’s ‘strategic windfall’

In the wake of the stalled counteroffensive, the US interest in sacrificing Ukraine to bleed Russia was put on display again. In July, the Post‘s Ignatius declared that the West shouldn’t be so “gloomy” about Ukraine, since the war had been a “strategic windfall” for NATO and its allies. Echoing two of Deni’s objectives, Ignatius asserted that “the West’s most reckless antagonist has been rocked,” and “NATO has grown much stronger with the additions of Sweden and Finland.”

In the starkest demonstration of the lack of concern for Ukraine or its people, he also wrote that these strategic successes came “at relatively low cost,” adding, in a parenthetical aside, “(other than for the Ukrainians).”

Ignatius is far from alone. Hawkish Sen. Mitt Romney (R–Utah) explained why US funding for the proxy war was “about the best national defense spending I think we’ve ever done”: “We’re losing no lives in Ukraine, and the Ukrainians, they’re fighting heroically against Russia.” The consensus among policymakers in Washington is to push for endless conflict, no matter how many Ukrainians die in the process. As long as Russia loses men and material, the effect on Ukraine is irrelevant. Ukrainian victory was never the goal.

‘Fears of peace talks’

Polls show that support for increased US involvement in Ukraine is rapidly declining. The recent Republican presidential debate demonstrated clear fractures within the right wing of the US power structure. Politico (8/18/23) reported that some US officials are regretting potential lost opportunities for negotiations. Unfortunately, this minority dissent has yet to affect the dominant consensus.

The failure of the counteroffensive has not caused Washington to rethink its strategy of attempting to bleed Russia. The flow of US military hardware to Ukraine is likely to continue so long as this remains the goal. The Hill (9/5/23) gave the game away about NATO’s commitment to escalation with a piece titled “Fears of Peace Talks With Putin Rise Amid US Squabbling.”

But even within the Biden administration, the Pentagon appears to be at odds with the State Department and National Security Council over the Ukraine conflict. Contrary to what may be expected, the civilian officials like Jake Sullivan, Victoria Nuland and Antony Blinken are taking a harder line on perpetuating this conflict than the professional soldiers in the Pentagon. The media’s sharp change of tone may both signify and fuel the doubts gaining traction within the US political class.

#ukraine conflict #us propaganda #nato

37 notes · View notes

chelseachilly · 1 year ago

Text

king of my heart - pt 12

hold on to the memories they will hold on to you and i will hold on to you

pairing: reader x ben chilwell summary: it’s euro time baby!!! warnings: some smut at the end :) word count: 4k

a/n: hi!! this chapter was so fun to write, maybe my favourite so far?? i hope you guys like it, please let me know what you think! there’s only one more left after this <3

yourusername via stories

benchilwell

liked by masonmount, jackgrealish and others

benchilwell Back at it! Feeling fit and thrilled to be back in time for the end of the season 💙

view all comments

yourusername Looking fit, that’s for sure 😍😍😍

benchilwell Hahah thanks gorgeous 😏

chillyfan1 living for them flirting on insta

After a long and arduous journey, the day finally comes that Ben is able to step foot on the pitch at Stamford Bridge again.

It feels like a lifetime since you’ve seen him play, and you couldn’t be more excited. You’re seated in a box with Kai’s girlfriend Sophia, anxiously awaiting kickoff.

You know how hard Ben has trained for this moment and that he’s been cleared by a team of doctors and physios who are at the top of their field, but you can’t help but feel incredibly nervous as you see him emerge from the tunnel with the rest of the team.

“Hey, he’ll be fine,” Sophia says reassuringly, patting your arm. “I know it’s nerve-wracking the first time back, but he’s ready for this.”

You nod, forcing a smile despite the anxiety still lodged in your chest, which you suspect won’t go away until the final whistle is blown.

It’s a tough match against Arsenal today, and only the second last of the season. You know how crucial today’s game is for securing their spot in the top 4, and as a Chelsea fan, you’re incredibly nervous about the outcome.

It’s 1-1 at halftime, and continues to be until late in the second half.

Your fists are clenched tightly as you see the Arsenal striker on the breakaway, sprinting toward the goal. A few of the Chelsea players are trying to catch up to him, but Ben is the fastest, making a successful challenge and passing the ball back to a teammate as the crowd roars.

Your panic begins to dwindle as the game finishes up and Ben continues to play with the level of skill and talent that he possessed before his injury. He’s back - really, truly, finally back to playing the game he loves.

yourusername via stories

The week that the England squad is set to be announced for the Euros, you can tell how nervous Ben is.

He’s proven himself to have made a spectacular recovery in the last two Premier League games of the season, but it remains to be seen whether that was soon enough for him to have caught Gareth Southgate’s attention.

You’re incredibly anxious, too, as you wait for any news. This is what he’s been working toward his whole career, his whole life. To play for England on that scale, to finally get the chance to show the world what he is capable of, is everything he’s ever wanted. It’s the reason he’s fought so hard this year, through all the pain and setbacks.

As a result, you’ve both found a fun, helpful way to distract yourselves - having sex in every corner of your house, as often as possible. It began with you “christening” the home after you first officially moved in, which you knew didn’t make a lot of sense as Ben’s lived there the whole time you’ve been dating and you’ve already pretty much had sex in every room.

Then, it became a useful tool when Ben was getting particularly anxious about the call-up, which was becoming more and more often as the day drew closer. You’re also enjoying his return to full fitness for numerous reasons, including the fact that he’s now able to carry you upstairs and have his way with you like he used to, displaying a level of athleticism you had sorely missed.

This particular morning, you were having a lazy cuddle on the sofa watching Sky Sports, which inevitably led to the pundits discussing the possible England lineup and Ben pulling you into his lap to take his mind off it.

You’ve helped each other strip most of your clothes off - you in only your knickers and the t-shirt of Ben’s that you slept in, him in only his boxers - when his phone starts to ring.

“Shit, I’d better-“

“Yes, get it!” you exclaim, tearing yourself off him.

Ben would never normally take a call while you’re in the middle of such activities, but it’s a different scenario when he’s waiting to hear from the manager of the national team.

He scrambles around frantically looking for his phone, eventually finding it between the couch cushions.

“It’s Southgate,” Ben exhales as he looks at the Caller ID, and your eyes go wide.

“Answer it!”

Ben nods and gulps quickly before taking the call.

“Hello?”

Your heart is racing with anticipation and you briefly wish you had asked him to put it on speaker as Ben paces back and forth across the room, saying nothing except the odd “yes, sir,” giving you absolutely nothing to go off.

After a minute or two, Ben ends the call with a “thank you, I won’t let you down,” and your breath hitches. The moment he hangs up, he turns back to look at you with a slightly dazed expression.

“Did you-“ you begin to ask, and he just nods as a massive smile takes over his face.

“I got the call up,” Ben confirms, nodding his head. “I’m in the squad!”

You squeal with delight as you run across the room to him, throwing your arms around his neck and your legs around his waist. He catches you and holds you just as close, burying his face in your neck.

“You did it, baby,” you sigh with relief, your fingers digging in slightly to his bare shoulders. “Your hard work paid off. I’m so proud of you.”

He pulls back just enough to crash his lips down on yours in one of the most passionate kisses you’ve ever shared, his soft lips parting to slide his tongue into your mouth.

“Good thing we’re already dressed to celebrate,” you murmur teasingly, tightening your legs around him so you press against his hardened cock, making him moan against your mouth.

Within seconds, he has you laid out on the couch, climbing over you and smothering you with kisses as his hands work to remove the remaining clothing you have on.

The time leading up to the Euros seems to drag on forever.

You’re so incredibly happy and proud that Ben made the squad, and you wouldn’t have it any other way, but you underestimated how much you would miss him while he’s away at the training camp.

You’d gotten used to him being home all the time while he was injured, so you can’t help but suffer from a bit of separation anxiety while he’s gone, and you find yourself texting and calling him more often than you’re proud to admit.

It gets to the point that when Ben picks up the phone, you hear a chorus of “hi, Y/N!” on the other line before he’s even greeted you. It’s one thing being teased by Mason or James or even Jack, who you consider close friends, but you do feel a bit embarrassed to think of national heroes like Harry Kane or Marcus Rashford knowing you as Ben’s needy girlfriend.

Mostly, though, you’re just so excited to finally get to see Ben play at such a massive level, achieving his childhood dreams.

You obviously can’t miss an entire month of work to relocate to Germany, but you make travel plans and take vacation days to ensure that you see as many as possible. Every time you show up to a game and get to see Ben play his heart out for England, it’s all worth it.

As the weeks go on, England continues to succeed and Ben gets more and more playing time. He’s obviously proven himself as a force to be reckoned with, having come back even stronger from his injury, and it makes your heart swell with pride each time you see him come on - whether you’re watching on TV or in person.

When England makes it to the semi-final against Italy, there’s not a chance in hell that you’re missing it. You make the necessary arrangements at work and book flights for you and Charlotte before letting Ben know that you’ll be there.

You only get to see him for a few minutes when you fly in the morning or the match, as he’s deep in training mode for what may very well be one of the most important games of his career.

“You’re going to be amazing,” you tell him earnestly, cupping his face. “Whether the gaffer subs you on in the 89th minute or you’re on the starting lineup - which you should be - I am so proud of you.”

“Thanks, baby, you have no idea how much it means to have you here,” Ben says quietly, squeezing your waist. “I’ll see you after the game.”

He leaves you in his hotel room as he returns to the training pitch for warmups. You know his hopes aren’t high for much playing time in such an important game, but you’re still optimistic. He’s been just as good or better than the other left-back on the team, and he’s already got two assists and some impressive defensive plays to show for it.

Above all, you know he wants his team to win, however that is achieved. You just - a bit selfishly, maybe - want Ben to play a role in that win.

An hour before kick-off, you and Charlotte change into your Chilwell and Mount England NT shirts, respectively, and head down to the Alilianz Arena, home of Bayern Munich.

It’s definitely one of the most massive and electric sporting events you’ve ever been to, including some impressive games hosted at Wembley. The crowd is full of fans from all across Europe, and both English and Italian flags line the stands.

“Oh my god, did you look at the lineup?” Charlotte asks, glancing at her phone as you take your seats with some of the other girls.

You shake your head and she shoves her phone in your hand. Your eyes immediately scan down the list until you see “CHILWELL” in big bold font.

“Oh my god!” you practically shriek. “Ben’s starting!”

“That’s amazing, babe!” Sasha exclaims from beside you, grabbing your arm.

As kick-off approaches, you see the teams make their way out of the tunnel. Seeing Ben stand on the pitch as the national anthem plays, dressed in his England kit, fills you with unimaginable pride.

The next 90-odd minutes are some of the most intense and exhilarating of your life. You’re on the edge of your seat the entire time, jumping up when anything happens.

Kane scores first, followed by an immediate equalizer from Italy. At the end of the first half, the Italian side gets one more past Pickford, which appears to be offside but is ultimately ruled a goal.

At halftime, the mood in the English supporter section is somewhat grim, but you know they can turn this around. They need two goals to win this, and they have an incredibly strong team here.

You send Ben a quick text as Charlotte and Lauren run to grab you some cocktails to take the edge off.

You - 3:52PM Amazing start, babe. You got this second half 💪💕

When the game resumes, the team appears to have been reinvigorated during the break.

England starts strong, retaining possession well and creating some solid chances. You know it’s only a matter of time before they score and level the game.

Then, the most remarkable thing happens.

Ben is running toward the net with the ball, Italy’s defense lagging behind as they attempt to catch up with him. He’s running faster than you’ve ever seen him, obviously looking for an open teammate, and his eyes find Jack from across the pitch. He passes to him with incredible precision, despite the speed he was running at, but Jack doesn’t have a clear shot on goal.

In a split second decision, Jack passes the ball right back to Ben, who volleys it without a second thought.

There’s a brief moment of hesitation as you wait for confirmation of the goal, and then the crowd erupts with cheers.

You jump up in your seat, screaming at the top of your lungs along with thousands of other supporters. You’re pretty sure your boyfriend is the most beloved man in England at the moment, but the moment he realizes it’s a goal, he turns to where he knows you’re sitting and points right at you.

“And it appears Ben Chilwell is dedicating this goal, his first in a major international tournament and his first since returning from injury, to someone special in the England supporter section!” the commentator declares, making you blush as you feel so many eyes on you.

The game continues, and you’re unable to take your eyes off Ben as he continues to dominate on the pitch, their defense like an unbreakable barrier for the Italians.

In the final minutes, Saka scores with an assist from Declan, and the crowd goes wild once more. The final whistle blows, and you all jump up and cheer as England takes the win, advancing them to the final.

You feel like you’re buzzing off much more than the couple of drinks you’ve had as the stadium erupts with cheers and chants from the English fans, the players celebrating enthusiastically on the pitch.

You and the girls rush down to meet them in the changing room, and there’s already music blaring and champagne being sprayed everywhere as you enter. They have a week until the final, so they can let loose a bit tonight.

“Y/N!” Reece exclaims, the first person you see when you walk into the room. “We did it!”

“You did it!” you shout back over the noise, pulling him into a tight hug. “Have you seen-“

“He’s over there,” Reece says with a knowing smile, gesturing to the other side of the room, where Ben is posing for photos with Bukayo and Mason.

The moment Ben sees you, his already wide grin grows impossibly bigger. He drops his arms that were around his teammates and holds them open for you.

You don’t think about the many people watching you, or the fact that they’re all currently recording on their phones, or anything other than running into Ben’s arms and hugging him as tightly as possible.

When you reach him, he catches you and spins you around in the centre of the room, making you laugh into his neck as you squeeze him tight.

“That was incredible!” you say, your voice muffled by his skin as you leave a few kisses there. “That goal, Ben, I-you took my breath away. You’re amazing.”

Ben pulls back and cups your face in both hands, kissing you firmly. Your kiss him back just as fervently, trying to convey every emotion of the past two hours into one touch of your lips.

“Thank you,” are the first words out of Ben’s mouth when he pulls back, staring at you as if you had gone out there and scored all three goals yourself. “I couldn’t have done any of this without you, babe. Seriously.”

You meet his wide, slightly watery eyes, getting lost in them just like you do for hours on end when you lay in bed together, or for a brief moment each time you meet his gaze from across a crowded room.

There were so many times over the past year that you saw nothing but pain in those beautiful blue eyes of his, and all you wanted was to fast forward to this moment - this perfect, glorious moment - when he would be healed and back to achieving his biggest dreams.

Every time you woke up in the middle of the night to find him in pain, clutching his knee, making your heart shatter in a million pieces; every argument you had over what was best for him; every game that he had to watch from the sidelines.

Every setback, every gruelling physio session, every time he wanted to quit but didn’t.

It all led to this - him making a massive impact, securing his team’s place in the Euro final and giving them the chance to make history.

“Baby, why are you crying?” Ben asks softly, and you snap out of your train of thought to find him caressing your face and wiping away the tears that have started falling from your cheeks.

“I’m just so proud of you,” you choke out, smiling through your tears. “I knew you could do it.”

“Thank you for believing in me,” he says, pressing a kiss to your forehead, followed by a few more to your cheeks and lips. “I love you so much.”

“I love you too,” you breathe, pulling him into another tight hug - partly because you want to feel his warmth all around you again, and partly so you can hide your tears in his shoulder. You’ve had enough of being totally emotionally vulnerable in front of thirty other people for one night.

A couple of hours later, you’re still partying with everyone at a club near your hotel, celebrating the win while also ensuring the boys drink enough water and don’t get too out of control. You know Southgate will be thanking you for that tomorrow when they show up to training with hopefully not too much of a hangover.

Ben is definitely feeling a buzz after just a few drinks, though, especially after having not really drank at all since they’ve been in Germany. He’s even touchier than usual, constantly keeping an arm around you or his hand in yours as you walk around chatting with his teammates and their girlfriends.

Eventually, you two end up in the corner of a booth squished between Jack Grealish and James Maddison, watching with amusement as Mason and Declan attempt Wonderwall on karaoke.

Everyone is laughing and documenting it, but Ben is fairly focused on you in his lap, his thumb stroking the exposed skin between your shirt - with his name on the back, which is definitely getting him going - and your jeans.

He’s pressing kisses to your neck every once in a while, sending shivers up your spine and making you wonder how obvious it would be if you two disappeared to the bathroom for a few minutes.

“Oi, look who went viral,” Madders chuckles, sliding his phone over to you and Ben.

You’re not sure who posted it first, but the video of you leaping into Ben’s arms in the changing room seems to have gained millions of views already.

“Oh, god,” you groan, rolling your eyes. “Our families are gonna see me making out with you.”

“Worth it,” Ben laughs, kissing your shoulder. “It’s a cute video, to be fair.”

You giggle as Ben begins to trail his kisses up your neck, not hesitating to show you affection even amongst all his teammates. You love seeing him in this great of a mood, riding on the high of his performance today, which earned him his first Player of the Match award for England.

“Have I told you how proud I am of you?” you murmur in his ear, pressing your lips to his temple.

“Yeah, you’ve mentioned it,” Ben jokes, squeezing your thigh - you’ve probably told him about ten times since you left the stadium, not to mention the thousands of times you’ve repeated the words to him throughout his recovery.

“Well, then,” you smirk, shifting your weight on his lap so that you run against his crotch just enough to drive him crazy. “Want me to show you?”

Ben’s eyes darken as they look into yours, seeing just how serious you are. It’s almost comical how quickly he shoves Madders out of the way so the two of you can escape the booth.

“Going to celebrate the win, Chilly?” Jack asks teasingly, slinging his arm around Sasha as he sips his beer.

“Yes, we are,” you say smugly, taking Ben’s hand in yours. “We’ll see you all at breakfast. Maybe.”

The guys all laugh at your unusually brazen comments, but Ben just tugs on your hand like an impatient child, clearly ready to go back to your room.

“Night, boys,” Ben says, already looking toward the door, and you laugh as you’re dragged along with him.

Within fifteen minutes, you’re making out in the elevator on the way up to your room, and within twenty, all of your clothes are off and you’re riding him on the king-sized bed as he moans into your mouth.

“So good,” Ben groans, his fingers digging into your hips as they roll over his. “Fuck, baby, you’re so amazing.”

“You’re amazing,” you sigh, pushing down on his shoulders for leverage as you try to thrust him deeper inside you. “You’re so good, Ben. So strong. You feel so good inside me.”

He grips your hips even tighter and thrusts upward into you, making you cry out in pleasure as he increases the speed and intensity.

You knew it would be good, but this is one of the best times you’ve ever had - and you and Ben have had some great ones. Every touch feels like an electric shock to your system, every kiss is like a drug, and every pump inside you makes you feel like you’re ascending to another plane of existence.

“I love you,” Ben groans, and you can feel him getting close as you approach your own climax.

“I love y-oh!”

You cry out in pleasure as you crumple over him in your release, your body relaxing against his.

Ben holds you close for a moment, pressing soft kisses to your shoulder as you ride out the orgasm, still joined together.

“You good, love?” he asks in a breathy whisper.

He waits for your nod of consent before moving you onto your sides carefully and thrusting into you a few more times. He moans into the crook of your neck as he comes, finally collapsing against the mattress.

You lay there, both breathing heavily, for a moment before meeting each other’s eyes. A wide smile spreads across Ben’s face as he looks at you, sheer adoration in his eyes despite the fact that you’re sure you look like a mess right now, your hair tangled and your makeup smudged.

“That was the best thing that happened to me today, and the bar was really fucking high,” Ben laughs, wrapping his arms around you and tugging you closer.

You laugh into his chest, nuzzling your nose against his warm and slightly sweaty skin, pressing a kiss there.

“I need a shower,” you mumble into his skin - after a few hours in a crowded football stadium, then in a locker room full of sweaty men, followed by a night club, you’re definitely in need of one.

“Me too,” Ben smiles, although he showered after the match. “Let’s go.”

Eager for more already, you don’t argue when he follows you into the shower.

Regardless of what happens in the final, he’s your champion, and you’re going to treat him as such.

yourusername 📍 Germany

yourusername So proud of you @benchilwell 🥹❤️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 It’s been a dream come true watching you play for England after everything you’ve overcome in the past year. No matter what happens on Saturday, you’ve accomplished something incredible here. You inspire me every day with your strength and your determination. I love you ❤️❤️❤️ #itscominghome

view all comments

benchilwell Thanks baby ❤️ couldn’t have done any of this without you. I love you!!!

charlottewright Y’all are too adorable I can’t take it!!!

kennedyalexa Fav couple 🥹

tagging: @xjval @majx00 @delicateearthquakellama @lunamelona @kenanlotus0 @madriiid @mountstars @ttzamara

a/n: please excuse my terrible attempts at photoshop at the end there 😭

next (and last!) chapter 💕

#ben chilwell #ben chilwell x reader #ben chilwell x y/n #ben chilwell imagine #chelsea fc imagine #komh

82 notes · View notes

uloelu · 4 months ago

Text

Location: Lykke Center, Windenburg

(transcript under the cut)

Previous (Part 2) | Next

Here's the third and final part! Hope you enjoyed this episode centered around the foster moms. I'd been waiting for the best moment to introduce them to you! You'll see them here and there in the future, and I hope to give them at least one joint episode per season.

Episode 5: Mother, Mother - Part 3

Scene 4 - Leuchtterm Bar und Grille, Lykke Center, Windenburg

[Evening breaks at a restaurant in town…]

Eva Capricciosa (Maître d'): Leuchtterm, how may I help you?

Clara Bjergsen: Björn, for God’s sake, stop sulking.

Patron: ...and then I told her, my daughter does not have bad gas!

Malcolm Landgraab (thinking to himself): This place is a fucking dump. Couldn't we have gone anywhere else?

Geoffrey Landgraab: Have a good day at school, Malcolm?

[Audreyanna sits with her father and his much younger fiancée. All are on their phones; little conversation is being made.]

Lloyd Brookestone: So…a little birdie told me that someone’s living in a full house.

Brylee O’Donnell: Yeah! You’re so odd, Anna. Fostering six teenagers? Is that even legal?

Audreyanna (thinking to herself): God-fucking-damnit

Audreyanna: It’s Audreyanna, thanks. Why am I not surprised that you two stalked me again? Was moving to Germany not a big enough hint?

Lloyd: I have my ways. And hey, I’m still your old man. You could have told me! I would have loved to advise you during the process.

Audreyanna: Like you’ve had experience with the foster system.

Lloyd: Maybe not, but I’ve had experience raising a teenager. Come on, Audreyanna, six kids? Talk about a trial by fire! (pauses) Besides, you’re not the only one expanding the Brookestone family…

Audreyanna (thinking to herself): You’ve got to be kidding me.

[Brylee and Audreyanna stand up so the former can display her slightly pregnant stomach.]

Brylee: Surprise! We wanted to tell you in person. Lloyd and I are going to be parents!

Audreyanna: What the fuck?!

Lloyd: Now, I know this is a bit unexpected…

[Brylee yawns loudly.]

Audreyanna: Unexpected isn’t the word, Dad. You mean to tell me that you got her pregnant? Has her frontal lobe even finished developing? Not to mention, you found out I’m going through something as big as fostering teens for the first time…and you decided to launch your fucking baby the first time we talked about it?

Brylee: Anna, don’t tear his head—

Audreyanna: How many times do I have to tell you that you can’t call me that?

Brylee: Okay, I know that we haven’t been the best of friends, but I thought you’d be happy for me. You know, as a woman.

Audreyanna: As a woman? You’re barely out of college! Shacking up with a 73-year-old man!

Lloyd (thinking to himself): I’ll just stay out of this one.

Brylee: Oh, and you’re so high and mighty, huh? Isn’t Evelyn older than you?

Audreyanna: …what? I mean, yeah, by ten months!

Brylee: There you go. I’m an adult perfectly capable of making my own decisions. I’m not trying to be your stepmom here.

Audreyanna: No, you’re just trying to give birth to a sibling that’s fifty years younger than me!

Brylee: Then ignore their existence! You’re pretty good at that. After all, isn’t what you’ve been doing to us?

Silence.

Lloyd: You’ve always been careful about hiding your life from me, Audreyanna. I don’t understand it, but fine. As long as you respect that we’re making our own life choices, too.

[The waiter arrives.]

Waiter: You guys ready to order?

Audreyanna: Please.

Geoffrey: Malcolm, it’s almost been an hour. The sun’s already set. Can you please just pick something to eat?

Malcolm: How does anyone eat this garbage food? I’ll just get a water.

[Some time later, the waiter reappears with the trio’s food.]

Waiter: Here you go. My, you guys are quiet all of a sudden.

[They dig in.]

Brylee: Gosh, this fake chicken is really delish! A fine testament to the wonders of tofu.

Audreyanna: Tofu, huh? I feel for that baby.

Brylee: If you must know, my doctor says it’s perfectly fine to—

Audreyanna: I don’t care that you’re vegan, Brylee. Just feed that kid greens or something. Anything but tofu.

8 notes · View notes

twocutlines · 24 days ago

Text

the great 911 season 8 airplane analysis

disclaimer: this is just for fun! i know 911 on abc was never going to produce a perfect, error-free replica of a commercial jet aircraft, and i don't expect them to. i just like to look at and talk about planes; this was purely for my own amusement. also, i am not by any means a trained expert in this field – i did a pretty significant amount of research in an attempt to make sure i was getting things right, but there might still be mistakes, so if anything is off that is my bad.

PART 1: THE PLANE

so, what kind of a plane is it?

it is definitely modeled after an airbus. this was already pretty obvious by them referring to it as a "skytrain" (lol), but it is evident from the set as well:

the copilot is using a side-stick controller, which was pioneered by airbus with the A320 along with fly-by-wire flight control systems. to my knowledge, the only commercial jet aircraft that currently have side-stick controllers are airbus-built; boeing still uses more traditional control columns/yokes (which you can see here in a 737 max cockpit).

airbus has come out with 8 different families of passenger jets. since the first fully fly-by-wire, side-stick-controlled model was the A320, this takes the A300 and A310 out of the running. that leaves 6 possibilities: the A320, A330, A340, A350, A380, and A220 (though the A220 was not originally designed and produced by airbus so i would not consider it a serious candidate here).

as jem says at the beginning of 8x02, this is a twinjet (2 engines), so it is not an A340 or A380, which both have 4. the A380 also has two(!) full-length passenger decks and is the largest passenger aircraft in the world; this plane is not nearly big enough.

additionally, later-model airbuses, starting with the A350, have a distinctive black mask around their windscreen (below), which is pretty clearly not present here.

moving on to the cabin:

since it has two aisles, this is a wide-body aircraft (as jem also points out). that eliminates the A220 and A320, which are narrow-body/single-aisle models, so it must be either an A330 or A350.

beyond the number of aisles, the actual number and configuration of seats (this is 9-abreast/3-3-3 configuration, so 9 seats per row) does not necessarily tell us much because airlines can reconfigure seating plans, including adding/removing seats. the A350 is a bit bigger than the A330 and was originally designed for a 3-3-3 seating configuration like we see here, but 9-abreast A330s do exist (here is a page with seat maps of 9-abreast A330s operated by air transat).

back to the cockpit!

the A330 and A350 have a few differences in the design/layout of the cockpit and flight instruments, a major one being that the A350 has a third screen to the right of the flight and navigation displays (it would be roughly where the yellow arrow is pointing). this screen is absent in the A330, which has a display layout pretty much identical to what we see in the show.

here are photos of actual A330 (left) vs A350 (right) cockpits:

neither is an exact match, but the A330 cockpit is much closer.

MISCELLANEOUS GRIEVANCES/ETC:

back to this:

airbus and boeing planes have different windscreen designs, which are pretty distinctive once you start looking for them. you can see some of the general differences here (with airbus in back and boeing in front):

some airbus models, such as the A350 with its funny little mask, have a different appearance, with windows that are rounded on the ends. the plane in 911 looks a lot more similar to a boeing to me, but it is blurry, so i suppose i can give them the benefit of the doubt.

however, it also doesn't have wingtip devices (you can also see an example of these in the background of the A350 mask photo), which is pretty rare for a modern commercial jet aircraft. the one major exception i can think of is the boeing 777, so with that plus the window thing, i'm guessing this model was probably generated based off a boeing 777 and not an airbus. but, you know, whatever. moving on.

the navigation and flight displays on the copilot's side (green box) are flipped (you can see the actual positions of them in the real cockpit photos above). i am not sure if this is something you can switch at will since it's a digital display, but i was not able to find any images of real A330 cockpits with the displays in this configuration.

the DCDU (blue boxes), which sends/receives electronic messages between pilots and air traffic control, is missing the buttons on the side (again, you can see them in the A330 cockpit photo above). a few other instruments seem to have been removed as well (pink box).

a chunk of the landing gear and autobrake controls have also been been removed in this shot (yellow box). however, when we see a shot of the whole cockpit again later, they seem to have come back:

the thing highlighted by the red box is a clock.

this would not be that egregious were it not for the fact that: 1. they specifically chose to use a close-up shot of this during the traffic alert, implying that the clock is somehow able to sense nearby aircraft; 2. it is very clearly not even part of the original instrument panel (you can see that it doesn't fit into the slot they screwed it into and a button on the top right is fully blocked by the instrument panel); and 3. i am less confident about this, but i'm fairly convinced that this is a boeing instrument, not from an airbus, which tend to have clocks that look more like this. here is a video that goes into more detail about the clocks on boeing and airbus aircraft if you are curious.

i am harping on this issue so much because of point #2 – they had to actively go out of their way to do this. i don't understand it at all. there are, as i will get into in the next section, far easier (and more accurate!) ways to convey the traffic alert, but instead there is a shot of a clock that isn't even from the same airplane. fascinating stuff.

next up is the actual collision/accident itself!

#posts for an audience of like three people probably. but well. here it is #forgive the quality of the screenshots ever since hulu fucking blocked screen capture ability i have had to resort to other means #this has been in my drafts for a Full week but whatever. i'm posting it. i am cringe but i am free etc

5 notes · View notes

ravenadottir · 1 year ago

Text

renaming characters: s1, s3 and s4

i just decided to compile all of them in one post since we all know these characters pretty well, and by that i mean i know SOME of the names from season 4.

season 2 / season 5 (i guessed/named them because i didn't play the season so... no stakes there!)

SEASON 1

allegra - she's very powerful, *clears throat* hot, and allegra as a name can be that...? i don't know, i feel like amber resumes this character so much, especially if you say it with her accent... amba... every amber in reality tv is a little too intense and we know she's the queen of cringey overreactions.

erikah - always thought laura would suit her better. i don't know why but i don't like erikah for her, but i think laura has a je ne sais quoi that she, the character, also has. she's very complicated and quite feeble at times, but her face tells me laura.

jen - she's clearly a fucking ashleigh. not for nothing, i know a lot of great ashleys', but the -eigh makes it so obnoxious and that's perfect for homegirl, because right off the bat she's claiming vanilla swirley hair romeo and ashleigh's tend to be like that... tell me you can't picture jen in a 2014 pinterest gear up in a pumpkin field wearing uggs and a fedora, i dare you to tell me she's not the type!

talia - is her full name natalia? 'cause it should be. in my humble opinion isla is a great name for her, (pronounced ay-lah) means island and it's spanish and scottish, perfectly beautiful for her, because let's be honest, if any of these girls is gonna have an interesting name, that's talia. hell, talia is already a great name!

jake - this is such a boring name for someone so full of flavor, i can't! he's not dabbed in caucasity nor adolescence, so why the fuck was he named jake???? mateo though... mateo is a fucking name, ok? it can be italian, spanish, portuguese, it doesn't matter. jake is such a 13-yo momma's boy name... ugh, no. if the guy has a collar popped like a fucking vampire and is walking around the villa with that hair, jake is not his name. PERIOD.

mason - i honestly like the name, just not for him. i always thought oliver would be a curveball because so is mason's lack of personality. let's face it they made a huge oopsie when interchanging levi's characteristics with his when coupled up with mc. mason is a drummer turned model, how the fuck did you manage to make him boring??? anyway, his face, to me, is giving oliver.

miles - he deserves a douche name because he has that chest piece, and any guy who displays such... awful tattoo deserves to be punished. fuck it, let's name him terry, short for terrible.

jasper - i mean, i HATE this name, and well, his face and hair is giving elité father tease, so i want to name santiago, because oh my god, every santiago i've met sucks ass and is a creep. the guy has a pet cobra, he HAS to be named santiago!

tim - this is the ONLY character who fits in the jake genre, because he looks 18 and clueless (affectionate). i feel like liam is somehow fitting for him, mostly because that's the go-to name in teen dramas... and usually the liam's are also clueless.

levi - why do his mates call him romeo is beyond me, homeboy has NO GAME. NONE. he's the personification (along with mason) of pretty privilege. if you stick a pin on his head it might deflate, because there's nothing going on behind those average eyes. fuck levi, his name is eric, basic and common.

rohan - since his name has multiple origins, and we don't know for sure his ethnicity (not that it matters, i know brazilian boys who are named tyler, so...) i'm naming him gael. he's a gael, argue with the wall.

cherry - have you ever seen a courtney??? because that's her! and she might be the type to say "although i have the same name as kourtney, khloe is my spirit animal" and you can't tell me she doesn't.

reese - tristan. fuck reese.

sammi - i would love to name her according to her ethnicity, because sammi apparently is hebrew. for instance, if she's korean: seong-min is perfect, because it's a genderless name and so it's sammi. also, i headcanon her as enby (she/them). if she's japanese, aya, because it can mean "brilliant fabric" and that's what she's fucking wearing. if chinese, yu ming, which means jade brightness, again... fitting! i like sammi, but i think it was a missed opportunity to name her in what could be her background culture, since lots of us don't know much, if anything about those countries. i for one didn't have any asian history classes in my school curriculum, which is weird because we had ajapanese immigration here, so like... MAKE IT MAKE SENSE. anyway, these are the names i would give her.

lucy - that's a rebecca that refuses being called becky, and will have a fit if you do. i don't have much to say about her, lucy can die in a hole.

SEASON 3

elladine - she gives me "i have two L's in my name" but it's not elladine. it's something like danielle, which is really pretty and the first name that came to mind when i saw the teasers with her.

aj - this is a great name for her, i have to say! if anything i would've taken the same route and either use an acronym, like aj, or a "boy name" like robin. i honestly love that name for girls and enby's.

bill - honestly the caucasity is too much for me, and i have to say, the name has to fall into that category, so i'm naming him ryan! he's childish and you can tell nobody has told him to shut the fuck up ONCE in his life. his name is ryan and you can argue with the jar of mayo sitting next to him.

camilo - i don't like this for anybody, it's such an ugly name in my opinion. if they wanted to name him a latin name they could've gone with so many other prettier options, and to me he looks like a cauã (the last a is pronounced ahn). listen, cauã is indigenous from brazil, BUT it's so fitting for him, you'll have to trust me on this one! they're athletic and also very... um... let's say "active", and by that i mean they're all whores (affectionate). it's perfect for him.

harry - if zhong is his surname (and it's chinese), then i'm choosing my favorite boy name, which is jun hie. ((fun fact, zhong can also be a first name, and it can mean devotion, among other things that don't even slightly mean that, but i'm focusing on devotion)). harry looks like someone who deserves a cute name that has a deep meaning, and jun hie means outstanding.

nicky - what a bland ass name for someone so pretty! i like jamal for him, and i could stand here all day trying to come up with an excuse but truth be told, it's because of jamal sims (the coreographer), leave me alone he's hot ok!

seb - i actually think a cat name is perfect for him lol it's either seb or something stupid like axel or dash, which makes him INCREDIBLY EMBARRASSED ABOUT IT.

miki - i like it but i think something like sakura would be perfect. there's something about her that reminds me of the petals' colors... she's a pretty chill girl, and somewhat delicate, so i like sakura for her.

genevieve - i think it's perfect! it's dainty but has some strength to it. personally i think if i came up with a name for her it wouldn't be as good as genevieve. hate the nickname though, viv is really basic. call her vieve, man, what are you doing??

iona - i would never think of this name because i've never heard it before meeting her, but she gives me the vibe of a girl who has a big name but cool, short nickname, like andressa or andrea but the nick is andi. the choice is andi, you pick the original.

ciaran - this is a trent and you can argue with bill's mayo jar. he might be irish but his stance is the fucking white american who is a nice guy. i don't like his personality, or the lack of, and trent is a brainless guy, just like him.

tai - it's fucking perfect for him actually! when i saw him on the tease i thought of taika, tai or koa (joyful), but personally i think tai or koa are very fitting.

yasmin - whenever i see her i think of the exact color of iris, so that's the name. plus, she gives "hemp-skirt-wearing and having lesbian sex in an orange tent after lolapalooza" tease and that's why iris fits.

rafi - i don't like the name rafi for him, so... husani. it's pretty accurate, since it means 'handsome'. i also like how it sounds and i think it fits with his personality since that's... the only personality he has. "ah, but vena he talks about his brother-" i'm gonna stop you right there, because he does, but um... how many times did we get to see his depth? exactly.

lily (liliana) - she looks like a bruna to me. it is italian but we do have a lot of bruna's here, and honestly? THEY ALL LOOK THE SAME, and they look like that.

SEASON 4

angie - she gives me strong vibes of alexandra, in a way that she hates her name and prefers a gender bent nickname, like alex. i don't like angie for her.

lexi - this absolute excuse of a person is a jessica to me, but the bad type. you know what i'm talking about, the type you have to call her out in the middle of a discussion because once again she's giving "THAT'S MY OPINION!!" tease. i hate this character so much, she's 46% of the reason why i stopped playing the season.

najuma - i love it but i would never think of this name since i've never heard it before. if someone suggested it, i would probably go with it, but if i had to pick one, it would be amani. i think najuma is better though.

thabi - honestly? pretty cool name for her, such a cute and short name, i would probably choose something like that. i'll keep it.

hazeem - not gonna lie i did NOT think he would have a muslim/arabic/urdu name when i saw him for the first time. and because i don't know NEARLY ENOUGH about the culture, i'm keeping it. he does look like a hazeem somehow.

james - it's such a common, bland, accessible name... then again, so is he. meh, james is fine. although he gives me benjamin... lol idk why, don't ask

kobi - this guy is such a... dynamic young man. there's a guy named calvin, from season 3 of the circle, and is the perfect summoning of what i think kobi is like. the type of guy that joins his fingers and gestures it to explain something, particularly to someone who hasn't asked anything. yeah, kobi's name is calvin.

will - ok, it would be EVERYTHING UNDER THE SUN before will, especially knowing it's short for willem? LIKE, I FEEL SO BETRAYED- anyway, since he's japanese, and i wouldn't give him an engligh name, it's an opportunity to expand the character's culture a bit, so his name would be shigeru (lush), 'cause let's face it, the boy is pure lush... he has a fucking robe, it's perfect.

bruno - rafael vibes, and that's because here in brazil that usually goes to very annoying boys... (pronounced ha-fah-el). he just strikes me as a guy who doesn't know when to be quiet and well... he's a comedian, so you know that's fucking true.

youcef - if you told me he was french i would say pierre, because to be honest his face gives... absolutely nothing, so probably blanche? or blanc...? i don't know, he's just such a weird choice, all i think of is the "go back to party city where you belong" because of his hair. i'm definitely naming his blanche.

valentina - that's the most gabriela i've ever seen!! like... she's so fucking hot, i barely can think when i see her, and valentina is a beautiful name, just doesn't fit her vibe.

juliet - fuck this girl, i hate her design so much. and you know what, i also hate the name adrianna, so that's what i would name her. she has the vibe of someone who cuts you off to talk about herself and adrianna's love doing that shit.

cora - close but not quite, i would name her nova, because reasons. she just gives me nova vibes, maybe it's her style? maybe it's just how fresh she looks, idk, i just love the name nova for her.

tom - i'm not fucking with you, the first name that came to mind when i saw him was jerry, before knowing what he was called lol istg it's just jerry for me, the oldest most generic name for a guy that wears a goddamn suit on a summer trip.

kelly - i don't like the name kelly, it's really common in some regions here, i'm tired! plus, she breathes, walks and talks like a chloe, i can't imagine another name for her.

tiffany - hate this name, oh my god... if i had to moan tiffany at any given time, i would jump into an elevator shaft first. since they go by all pronouns, why not a gender neutral name? he gives me solid riley energy. i like it because of the girl in inside out and how there's male and female emotions in her head, so... riley.

dylan - he could be named rat for all i care. BUT i'm giving marcel, because that's what marcel's do, understimate women and are slightly misogynistic, and by slightly i mean a fuck ton. FUCK THIS GUY, FUCK HIS FACE, FUCK HIS BODY, FUCK HIS PERSONALITY. FUCK - THIS - CHARACTER.

oliver - at this point i don't even know, because he gives oliver, but he also gives mason, and also jason, basically names for guys that are ripped lol i think i would give him luke. don't ask, it's a luke thing!

#love island the game #litg #queue #litg s3 #litg s4 #litg s1 #litg jake #litg talia #litg levi #litg tim #litg nicky #litg bill #litg tai #litg camilo #litg rafael #litg will #litg angie #i'm not tagging everyone lol

32 notes · View notes